Controlled modification of erbium lifetime in silicon dioxide with metallic overlayers

The authors report systematic measurements of the lifetime of the 1.54μm transition of erbium implanted at different energies in SiO2 films coated with different metals (titanium and chromium). The lifetime shows a strong reduction (up to a factor of 20) with decreasing distance between the erbium and the metal overlay. Their experiments combined with rigorous theoretical modeling demonstrate that a high degree of control over the radiative properties of erbium can be achieved in erbium-implanted materials in a wide range of implantation energies.