The positively charged carbon vacancy defect as a near-infrared emitter in 4H-SiC

Certain intrinsic point defects in silicon carbide are promising quantum systems with efficient spin-photon interface. Despite carbon vacancy in silicon carbide is an elementary and relatively abundant intrinsic defect, no optical signal has been reported associated with it. Here, we revisit the positively charged carbon vacancy defects in the 4H polytype of silicon carbide (4H-SiC) by means of $\mathit{\text{ab}}\mathit{\text{initio}}$ calculations. We find that the excited state is optically active for the so-called h-site configuration of carbon vacancy in 4H-SiC, with zero-phonon line at $0.65\mathrm{e}\mathrm{V}$. We propose this defect as an exotic paramagnetic near-infrared emitter in the IR-B region.