Persistent spectral-hole burning in the wide-gap semiconductor SiC doped with vanadium.

Persistent spectral-hole burning was performed in the gamma line of V(4+) in the wide-gap semiconductor 6HSiC. Spectral holes burned at 11 K were stable to temperatures of at least 320 K for several days. The hole-burning mechanism consists of two-step photoionization of V(4+) (self-gated spectral-hole burning). The spectral holes could be erased optically, either by pumping of electrons back from stable traps or, presumably, by a charge-transfer transition from the valence band to the V(5+) ions.