Near Infrared Photoluminescence of NCVSi- Centers in High-Purity Semi-Insulating 4H-SiC Irradiated with Energetic Charged Particles

This paper reports optical propertites of negatively charged NCVSi- centers in silicon carbide (a nitrogen substituting for a carbon atom adjacent to a silicon vacancy) whose emission wavlength is 1100-1500 nm at room temperature. High-purity semi-insulating (HPSI) 4H-SiCs are implanted with high energy N ion beams and subsequently thermally annealed to form NCVSi centers. We investigated a wide range of N ion implantation dose using a micro ion beam implantation technique and observed the photoluminescence intensity from the SiC-NV centers. We show that under conditions of heavy implantation, the excitation laser power excites residual defects and their fluorescences intereferes with the emission from the NCVSi- centers. These results allow us to clarify the requirements to optically detect isolated single NCVSi- centers at lightly implanted conditions.