Er 3+ in strong light-confining microcavity

Abstract
Er 3+ ions produce a sharp line emission that has small absorption cross section, long radiative lifetime, and is independent of external perturbations. These optical properties of the Er3+ ions limit the pumping efficiency and tunability of the emission line. In this work we present a study in which Er3+ emission was modified by coupling an ensemble of Er3+ ions to a microcavity resonance. The optical response of an optical cavity that consists of an Er2O3 layer confined between Si/SiO2 distributed Bragg reflectors is studied. When the cavity is in resonance with the optical transition of the Er3+ ions, the resonances in the reflectivity spectra split. The results are explained by a standard semiclassical model of atom–photon coupling.