Optical signatures of single ion tracks in ZnO

Surface modification by high-energy heavy-ion irradiation in various crystalline ZnO facets

Self-assembled surface nanoscale structures on various ZnO facets are excellent templates for the deposition of semiconductor quantum dots and manipulation with surface optical transparency. In this work, we have modified the surface of c-, m- and a-plane ZnO single-crystals by high-energy W-ion irradiation with an energy of 27 MeV to observe the aspects of surface morphology on the optical properties. We kept ion fluences in the range from 5 × 10⁹ cm^-2 to 5 × 10¹¹ cm^-2 using the mode of single-ion implantation and the overlapping impact mode to see the effect of various regimes on surface modification. Rutherford backscattering spectroscopy in the channeling mode (RBS-C) and Raman spectroscopy have identified a slightly growing Zn-sublattice disorder in the irradiated samples with a more significant enhancement for the highest irradiation fluence. Simultaneously, the strong suppression of the main Raman modes and the propagation of the modes corresponding to polar Zn-O vibrations indicate disorder mainly in the O-sublattice in non-polar facets. The surface morphology, analysed by atomic force microscopy (AFM), shows significant changes after ion irradiation. The c- and a-plane ZnO exhibit the formation of small grains on the surface. The m-plane ZnO forms a sponge-like surface for lower fluences and grains for the highest fluence. The surface roughness itself increases with the irradiation fluence as shown by AFM measurement as well as spectroscopic ellipsometry (SE) analysis. The damage caused by high-energy irradiation leads to non-radiative processes and suppression of the near-band-edge peak as well as the deep-level emission peak in the photoluminescence spectra. Furthermore, the refraction index n and the extinction coefficient k of irradiated samples, determined by SE, have features corresponding to the particular exciton states blurred and are slightly lower in the optical bandgap region especially for the polar c-plane ZnO facet.

Strain Modulation of Si Vacancy Emission from SiC Micro- and Nanoparticles

Single-photon emitting point defects in semiconductors have emerged as strong candidates for future quantum technology devices. In the present work, we exploit crystalline particles to investigate relevant defect localizations, emission shifting, and waveguiding. Specifically, emission from 6H-SiC micro- and nanoparticles ranging from 100 nm to 5 μm in size is collected using cathodoluminescence (CL), and we monitor signals attributed to the Si vacancy (VSi) as a function of its location. Clear shifts in the emission wavelength are found for emitters localized in the particle center and at the edges. By comparing spatial CL maps with strain analysis carried out in transmission electron microscopy, we attribute the emission shifts to compressive strain of 2-3% along the particle a-direction. Thus, embedding VSi qubit defects within SiC nanoparticles offers an interesting and versatile opportunity to tune single-photon emission energies while simultaneously ensuring ease of addressability via a self-assembled SiC nanoparticle matrix.