Room temperature cathodoluminescence quenching of Er3+ in AlNOEr
This paper reports a cathodoluminescence (CL) spectroscopic study of nanogranular AlNOErx samples with erbiumcontent, x, in the range 0.5--3.6 at%. A wide range of erbium concentration was studied with the aim ofunderstanding the concentration quenching of CL. The composition of thin films, deposited by radiofrequencyreactive magnetron sputtering, was accurately determined by Energy Dispersive X-ray Spectroscopy (EDS). CLemission was investigated in the extended visible spectral range from 350 nm to 850 nm. The critical concentrationof luminescent activator Er3+ above which CL quenching occurs is 1%; the corresponding criticaldistance between Er3+ ions in AlNOErx is about 1.0 nm. The quenching mechanism is discussed. We discount anexchange-mediated interaction in favour of a multipole-multipole phonon-assisted interaction.