Erbium-oxygen-codoped silicon multilayer film, which consists of alternate erbium-oxygen-codoped silicon layers and oxygen-doped silicon layers, was synthesized by molecular beam epitaxy. Er3+-related luminescence from erbium-oxygen-codoped multilayer film is stronger than that of erbium-oxygen-cocloped monolayer film and shows a weak temperature quenching behaviour. These improvements may be explained by the effect of O-doped Si layers in the multilayer film. The O-doped Si layers have a wide gap which prohibits the energy backtransfer effectively. At the same time, photogenerated carriers from silicon nanocrystals in O-doped Si layers Could transfer the energy to neighboring Er3+ ions in Er-O-codoped Si layers by a tunneling process, thus enhancing the Er3+-related luminescence. (c) 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.