Effect of annealing temperature on the optical and structural properties of Er3+-doped 80SiO2-10ZrO2-10Al2O3 thin film

The effect of annealing temperature on the optical and structural properties of Er3+-doped 80SiO2−10ZrO2− 10Al2O3 films fabricated on fused SiO2 glass by sol-gel-dip-coating are investigated. In this paper, the optical and structural properties were characterized by thin film analyzer, X-ray diffraction (XRD) and Fourier transform infrared (FTIR). From thin film analyzer, it showed that the film thickness decreased with the increment of annealing temperature while the refractive index exhibited the opposite trend. OH peak at the range of 3400 cm−1 to 3700 cm−1 which is obtained from FTIR spectra disappear for sample that were annealed at 800°C and 850°C due to absent of OH and water molecules. The XRD pattern shows a broad peak for all samples indicating the amorphous nature of the fabricated film. However, there is one crystalline peak detected at 2θ = 28.4° for sample 850° which is correspond to ZrO2.