Impact of Si nanocrystals in a-SiOx<Er> in C-Band emission for   applications in resonators structures
  Si nanocrystals (Si-NC) in a-SiOx<Er> were created by high temperature annealing. Si-NC samples have large emission in a broadband region, 700nm to 1000nm. Annealing temperature, annealing time, substrate type, and erbium concentration is studied to allow emission at 1550 nm forsamples with erbium. Emission in the C-Band region is largely reduced by the presence of Si-NC. This reduction may be due to less efficient energy transfer processes from the nanocrystals than from the amorphous matrix to the Er3+ ions, perhaps due to the formation of more centro-symmetric Er3+ sites at the nanocrystal surfaces or to very different optimal erbium concentrations between amorphous and crystallized samples. 
D.S.L Figueira, D. Mustafa, L.R. Tessler and N.C. Frateschi