54-μm electroluminescence of erbium-doped silicon grown by molecular beam epitaxy

The feasibility of producing erbium-doped silicon light-emitting diodes by molecular beam epitaxy is demonstrated. The p-n junctions are formed by growing an erbium-doped p-type epitaxial silicon layer on an n-type silicon substrate. When the diodes are biased in the forward direction at 77 K they show an intense sharply structured electroluminescence spectrum at 1.54 μm. This luminescence is assigned to the internal 4f–4f transition 4I13/2→4I15/2 of Er3+ (4f11).