Erbium implantation in strontium titanate

Abstract

We report on the lattice location of Er in SrTiO3 single crystals using the emission channeling technique. The angular distribution of conversion electrons emitted from 167mEr (T1/2 = 2.27 s) was monitored with a position-sensitive detector following the room-temperature 60 keV implantation of the precursor isotope 167Tm (T1/2 = 9.25 d) to a dose of 2 × 1012 at./cm2. The results for the sample annealed in vacuum at 610 °C for 15 min provide direct evidence that Er occupies both Sr and Ti substitutional lattice sites. In addition, thermal recovery of lattice damage was also studied with Rutherford backscattering/channeling for SrTiO3 implanted to doses of 5 × 1014 and 5 × 1015 Er/cm2. We further comment on preliminary photoluminescence results from these samples