The application of group theory to perturbative measurements on colour centres

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Abstract
A general analysis is made of uniaxial stress, Stark and Zeeman spectra of sharp line optical transitions in colour centres by using the symmetry properties of the centres, crystal lattice and perturbing field. Various general prescriptions are derived for calculating features of the spectra such as the number of components in a pattern and the number of independent polarized spectra which exist for a particular direction of the perturbation. Two results of special interest are the isotropic and unpolarized nature of emission (for nonselective excitation) and absorption spectra of unperturbed centres in cubic crystals, and the inability of perturbative experiments using a uniaxial stress or a magnetic field to completely specify the point group of the centre in the absence of detectable hyperfine electron-nuclear interactions.