Fine structure of the M-center in Si
Abstract
Color centers in silicon offer great possibilities for scalable quantum technologies. The M-center, proposed to originate from a carbon-hydrogen complex, offers telecommunications-band emission and a paramagnetic ground state similar to the T-center. Here, we report on photoluminescence lines in the vicinity of the M-center and investigate their properties, including their dependence on temperature, implantation fluence, implantation isotope, and annealing temperature. Three emission lines are observed that are blue-shifted by 1.1, 2.8 and 3.6 meV relative to the 761 meV zero phonon line of the M center, where the 2.8 meV line exhibits negative thermal quenching and is therefore proposed to originate from a second excited state of the M-center. The remaining blue-shifted emission lines, together with two additional red-shifted (4.7 and 6.4 meV) emission lines display normal thermal quenching, and are unaffected by an isotope shift of the implanted carbon atom (12C versus 13C implantation) and implantation fluence. Thus, they likely arise either from other defects with similar emission energies or from a perturbed configuration of the M-center.
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BibTeX
@misc{teien2026fine,
title = {{Fine structure of the M-center in Si}},
author = {Aurora Teien and David R. Gongora and Arnulf Johannes Snedker-Nielsen and Viktor Bobal and Augustinas Galeckas and Peter Granum and Stefano Paesani and Marianne Etzelmüller Bathen and Lasse Vines},
howpublished = {arXiv},
year = {2026},
month = aug,
doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2608.30790},
eprint = {2608.30790},
archivePrefix = {arXiv},
url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2608.30790},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Fine structure of the M-center in Si
AU - Aurora Teien
AU - David R. Gongora
AU - Arnulf Johannes Snedker-Nielsen
AU - Viktor Bobal
AU - Augustinas Galeckas
AU - Peter Granum
AU - Stefano Paesani
AU - Marianne Etzelmüller Bathen
AU - Lasse Vines
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/08/31
PB - arXiv
DO - 10.48550/arxiv.2608.30790
UR - https://arxiv.org/abs/2608.30790
AB - Color centers in silicon offer great possibilities for scalable quantum technologies. The M-center, proposed to originate from a carbon-hydrogen complex, offers telecommunications-band emission and a paramagnetic ground state similar to the T-center. Here, we report on photoluminescence lines in the vicinity of the M-center and investigate their properties, including their dependence on temperature, implantation fluence, implantation isotope, and annealing temperature. Three emission lines are observed that are blue-shifted by 1.1, 2.8 and 3.6 meV relative to the 761 meV zero phonon line of the M center, where the 2.8 meV line exhibits negative thermal quenching and is therefore proposed to originate from a second excited state of the M-center. The remaining blue-shifted emission lines, together with two additional red-shifted (4.7 and 6.4 meV) emission lines display normal thermal quenching, and are unaffected by an isotope shift of the implanted carbon atom (^12C versus ^13C implantation) and implantation fluence. Thus, they likely arise either from other defects with similar emission energies or from a perturbed configuration of the M-center.
ER -