High intensity luminescence from pulsed laser annealed europium implanted sapphire

Abstract

Sapphire samples (Al2O3) were implanted with 400-keV ions at a dose of 1×1016 ions cm-2. A comparison was made between furnace annealing and pulsed laser annealing of the implanted samples. Furnace annealing to 1200°C, followed by excimer laser anneals, resulted in an increase of the cathodoluminescence emission intensity of the implanted europium by a factor of ∼20. This enhanced intensity is ∼50 times that of the signal prior to any form annealing treatment. It is proposed that the laser anneals dissociate Eu related clusters. The Eu 622-nm lifetime reached 1.53 ms compared with an original postimplant value of 0.14 ms. © 1994 American Institue of Physics.