Luminescence investigations of cubic boron nitride doped with beryllium

Abstract

The cathodoluminescence and photoluminescence spectra of cubic boron nitride doped with beryllium under high-pressure and high-temperature conditions are investigated. It is revealed that, upon doping of cubic boron nitride with beryllium, the cathodoluminescence spectra exhibit a broad stable band. An increase in the impurity content leads to a shift in the position of the maximum of this band toward the short-wavelength range from ∼315 to ∼250 nm and to a change in the crystal color from dark yellow to blue. The structure, the intensity, and the position of the band at the maximum are studied as a function of the temperature of the cathodoluminescence measurement. The nature of the band is tentatively interpreted in the framework of the model of recombination at defects of the donor and acceptor types. It is assumed that several overlapping subbands which are associated with differently charged acceptor levels of beryllium are located in the vicinity of the valence band in the electronic structure of the doped cubic boron nitride. It is found that the photoluminescence spectra of single crystals of the doped cubic boron nitride contain three previously unknown zero-phonon lines at energies of 2.135, 2.270, and 2.600 eV.