An ODMR study of a luminescence excitation process in ZnSe:Fe

The authors report ODMR (optically detected magnetic resonance) studies of near infrared luminescence from nominally undoped cubic ZnSe. The magnetic resonances of shallow donors and isolated Fe³⁺ ions are detected in a prominent band at 980 nm. A similar band in ZnS has recently been identified by Skowronski and Liro (1981, 1982) as the internal ³T₁ to ⁵E transition of Fe²⁺. It is concluded that ODMR detects the radiationless distant shallow donor to Fe³⁺ deep donor electron transfer. This process creates the excited Fe²⁺(³T ₁) state which in turn emits the 980 nm photon in a transition to the 5_E ground state.