Color centers in wide-bandgap semiconductors such as hexagonal boron nitride (hBN) play an important role in quantum technologies such as single photon emitters and spin qubits. Especially carbon color centers in hBN, substituted carbon atoms at boron or nitride lattice, emerged as the atomic origin of several single photon emitters in several emission energies due to the robust deep-level trap states inside the bandgap. Here, I will present the creation and manipulation of carbon color centers in hBN and their deep ultraviolet (UV) emission properties, such as photoluminescence (PL) and electroluminescence (EL). Carbon color centers in hBN with van der Waals heterostructures exhibit robust tunneling behaviors with the highest breakdown electric fields, which is attributed to carbon atoms in hBN being the most stable defect configuration with the largest binding energy. Furthermore, I will also present the efficient electrically driven deep UV light emission from carbon-doped hBN van der Waals heterostructures with efficient charge carrier injections via trap states. These results pave the way for the promising developments of a highly efficient solid-state DUV light source and solid-state quantum emitter at the nanoscale.