Erbium incorporation in LiNbO3 by diffusion-doping

Abstract.

 The erbium incorporation into LiNbO₃ by diffusion doping is investigated in detail by means of Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometry, Secondary Neutral Mass Spectrometry, Rutherford Backscattering, Atomic Force Microscopy, X-ray Standing Wave technique and optical site-selective spectroscopy. The diffusion of erbium in LiNbO₃ can be described by Fick’s laws of diffusion with a concentration-independent diffusion coefficient. The diffusion constants and activation energies for Z-cut (X-cut) LiNbO₃ are 4.8×10^-5 cm²/s (12.0×10^-5 cm²/s) and 2.28 eV (2.44 eV), respectively. A limited solubility of erbium in LiNbO₃ has to be taken into account increasing exponentially with rising temperature. During the first step of diffusion an Er _x Nb _y -oxide layer is formed at the surface of the sample acting as diffusion reservoir. Erbium is incorporated into LiNbO₃ on vacant Li-sites slightly shifted from the original Li-position along the (-c)-direction. Site-selective spectroscopy found four distinguishable energetically different erbium centres at this lattice site resulting from locally different symmetries of the crystal field.