The metastable behaviour of a H-related defect in 6H-type material was studied. This defect gave rise to a low-temperature photoluminescence spectrum, and several excited states were observed using photoluminescence excitation. Quenching of the luminescence intensity was observed when using prolonged optical excitation, either when the energy was higher than the threshold for phonon-assisted free-exciton formation or when the excitation energy was resonant with an excited state of the H-related bound exciton.

Metastability of a Hydrogen-Related Defect in 6H-SiC A.Henry, T.Egilsson, I.G.Ivanov, E.Janzén: Materials Science Forum, 2000, 338-342, 651-4