Optical properties of a single Er center in GaN

Abstract Photoluminescence (PL) spectra near 1.5 μm of Er 3+ implanted into GaN are usually very complex, due to the number of different centers formed depending on Er concentration, annealing conditions as well as residual or intentional impurities. By implanting low Er doses into a high purity material we found it possible to obtain a single optically active center with very sharp PL lines. With use of high resolution resonant optical spectroscopy we were able to determine the Stark splitting of the 4 I 9/2 and 4 I 11/2 energy level and to perform reliable model calculations. We found that the Er 3+ center observed has C 3v site symmetry, i.e., the same as the point group of GaN.