Role of recombination pathway competition in spatially resolved cathodoluminescence spectroscopy

Abstract

Cathodoluminescence (CL) analysis enables characterization of optoelectronic materials and devices with high spatial resolution. However, data interpretation is complicated by the competitive nature of the CL generation process. Specifically, spatially resolved CL profiles are affected by both CL center distributions, and by the unknown distributions of recombination centers that do not generate peaks in measured CL spectra. Here, we use depth-resolved CL to show that the contribution of the latter can be deduced and removed from spatially resolved CL data. The utility of this technique is demonstrated using CL depth profiles of color centers in diamond.