Photon Emission Gain in Er-Doped Si Light-Emitting Diodes by Impact Excitation

Abstract

This work demonstrates photon emission gain, i.e., emission of multiple photons per injected electron, through impact excitation in Er-doped silicon light-emitting diodes (LEDs). Conventional methods for exciting Er ions in silicon suffer from low efficiency due to mismatched energy transfer between exciton recombination and Er excitation. Here, we propose a reverse-biased Si PN junction diode, where ballistically accelerated electrons induce inelastic collisions with Er ions, enabling tunable excitation via electric field modulation. Theoretical modeling reveals that photon emission gain arises from multiple impact excitations by a single electron traversing the electroluminescence region, with the gain value approximating the ratio of emission region width to electron mean free path, i.e., G = L_ex/$l$. Experimental results show an internal quantum efficiency (IQE) of 1.84% at 78 K, representing a 20-fold enhancement over the room-temperature performance. This work provides a critical foundation for on-chip integration of silicon-based communication-band lasers and quantum light sources.