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+(3T1) state which in turn emits the 980 nm photon in a transition to the 5E ground state.