An optically active material is used to create power devices and circuits having significant performance advantages over conventional methods for affecting optical control of power electronics devices and circuits. A silicon-carbide optically active material is formed by compensating shallow donors with the boron related D-center. The resulting material can be n-type or p-type but it is distinguished from other materials by the ability to induce persistent photoconductivity in it when illuminated by electromagnetic radiation with a photon energy in excess of the threshold energy required to photoexcite electrons from the D-center to allowed states close to the conduction band edge, which varies from polytype to polytype.