The influence of defects, in particular the deformation-induced defects, on
the luminescence of bulk ZnSe single crystals has been investigated by cat
hodoluminescence (CL) in the scanning electron microscope. Deformation has
been found to cause a reduction of the total CL intensity of the sample. CL
images of deformed samples reveal dark slip bands. The CL spectrum of an u
ndeformed crystal shows the near-band-edge emission at 2.8 eV and a broad b
and peaked at 2.2 eV with a shoulder at about 2 eV. Deformation at low stra
in causes only slight spectral changes while in a heavily deformed crystal
a strong relative enhancement of the deep level band in the range 2-2.2 eV
is observed. The relation of these spectral changes to the deformation-indu
ced defects is discussed. The infrared spectra show the existence of broad
bands at 0.95 and 1.27 eV. However, these emissions were found to be rather
insensitive to deformation.