Urbach absorption edge in epitaxial erbium-doped silicon

We investigate the dependencies of the photocurrent in Si:Er p-n junctions on the energy of the incident photons. The exponential absorption edge (Urbach edge) just below fundamental edge of silicon was observed in the absorption spectra of epitaxial Si:Er layers grown at 400–600 C. It is shown that the introduction of erbium significantly enhances the structural disorder in the silicon crystal which was estimated from the slope of the Urbach edge. We discuss the possible nature of the structural disorder in Si:Er and a new mechanism of erbium excitation, which does not require the presence of deep levels in the band gap of silicon