Combining experiments on luminescent centres in hexagonal boron nitride with the polaron model and <i>ab initio</i> methods towards the identification of their microscopic origin
Moritz Fischer, Sajid Ali, Jake Iles-Smith, Alexander Hötger, Denys I. Miakota, Mark Kamper Svendsen, Christoph Kastl, Stela Canulescu, Sanshui Xiao, Martijn Wubs, Kristian S. Thygesen, Alexander W. Holleitner, Nicolas Stenger
Abstract
. The theoretical method developed enables us to calculate so-called photoluminescence excitation (PLE) maps, which show excellent agreement with our experiments. The latter resolves higher-order phonon transitions, thereby confirming both the vibronic structure of the optical transition and the phonon-assisted excitation mechanism with a phonon energy ∼170 meV. We believe that the presented experiments and polaron-based method accurately describe luminescent centres in hBN and will help to identify their microscopic origin.