Evaluation of defects in cuprous oxide through exciton luminescence imaging

The various decay mechanisms of excitons in cuprous oxide (Cu2O) are highly sensitive to defects which can relax selection rules. Here we report cryogenic hyperspectral imaging of exciton luminescence from cuprous oxide crystals grown via the floating zone method showing that the samples have few defects. Some locations, however, show strain splitting of the 1s orthoexciton triplet polariton luminescence. Strain is reduced by annealing. In addition, annealing causes annihilation of oxygen and copper vacancies, which leads to a negative correlation between luminescence of unlike vacancies. •We use luminescence to observe defects in high quality cuprous oxide crystals.•Strain is reduced by annealing.•Annealing causes annihilation of oxygen and copper vacancies.