High-resolution spectroscopy of Er3+ ions in 6H SiC

In this work, we present results of a systematic study of optical properties of Er3+ ions in 6H SiC. The role of N-donors played in activation of photoluminescence (PL) of erbium at 1.5 μm was investigated. We have confirmed that N-donors are necessary for activation of the Er PL on one hand, whereas on the other we present evidence that N-donors compete for excitation with Er centres. The high-resolution measurements of the Er3+ PL were performed aiming at determination of crystal field split levels of the 4I15/2 ground and 4I13/2 first excited multiplet of Er3+ ions. Careful analysis of temperature evolution of individual PL lines allowed proposing energy level schemes for the ground and first excited states.