Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 February 2011
Recently developed tunable color center lasers allow to extend the experimental technique of excitation spectroscopy to the 1–2 μm region. This spectral range is of special interest for the study of luminescent defects in silicon. We discuss the color center laser systems available at present and their application to defect spectroscopy. As an example, results on the 0.767 eV (P line) defect in silicon are presented. Excitation spectroscopy reveals several high lying excited electronic states. They are interpreted as effective—mass—like states of a pseudo-donor with an ionization energy of 34.3 meV.