Ionoluminescence and ion beam induced secondary electron imaging of cubic boron nitride

In this work, we introduce the use of ionoluminescence (IL) with ion beam induced secondary electron (IBISE) imaging to correlate the surface topography and crystal faces with luminescence properties. Since both IL and IBISE require low beam currents of <1 pA, simultaneous analysis can be performed. The newly installed system for light and electron detection in the NUS micro-beam facility is described. The performance of the present setup is demonstrated with high-resolution IL and IBISE images collected on Al-doped (1 1 1) c-BN and undoped (1 0 0) c-BN under 2 MeV proton irradiation. Results show that blue luminescence of Al-doped c-BN appears as triangular patterns and they tend to be associated with triangular voids on the surface. This work demonstrates the importance of combined IL and IBISE for characterizing wide band gap semiconductors