© 2026 Aqora Quantum S.A.S.

Terms Privacy Legal Notice

arXiv:2601.08945 · Physical Review Applied

Demonstration Of A Quantum Magnetometer Chip Based On Proprietary And Scalable 4H-Silicon Carbide Technology

P. A. Stuermer, D. Wirtitsch, T. Steidl, R. Wörnle, J. Körber, W. Schustereder, C. Zmoelnig, P. Urlesberger, F. Chiapolino, S. Meinardi, K. Edelmann, M. Kern, J. Anders, S. Krainer, H. Heiss, M. Trupke, J. Wrachtrup

quant-phSubmitted Jan 13, 2026• Announced Jan 15, 2026• 0 citations

Abstract

This work presents an industrially scalable, power-efficient and high-performance quantum magnetometer chip based on proprietary 4H-silicon carbide (SiC) technology, leveraging wafer-scale fabrication techniques to optimize V2 silicon vacancy color centers for highly reproducible, industry-grade fabrication with precise control of depth and density. The integration of these color center ensembles into a planar silicon carbide waveguide enables efficient excitation of a large ensemble and simplifies fluorescence extraction compared to standard confocal methods. We report continuous-wave (CW) optically detected magnetic resonance measurements, complemented by Rabi, Ramsey, and Hahn-echo sequences, which demonstrate coherent capabilities of the large embedded ensemble of V2 centers. Based on the data, our device exhibits sensor shot-noise limited sensitivities 2-3 orders of magnitude lower compared to more complex confocal techniques. Collectively, these advancements simplify the quantum sensor architecture, enhance sensitivity, and streamline optical excitation and collection, thereby paving the way for the development of next-generation SiC-quantum sensing technologies.

Journal reference: Phys. Rev. Applied 26, 044002 (2026)
DOI: 10.1103/w49h-wfck

Related papers

Coherent Manipulation with Resonant Excitation and Single Emitter Creation of Nitrogen Vacancy Centers in 4H Silicon Carbide

Zhao Mu, Soroush Abbasi Zargaleh, Hans Jürgen von Bardeleben +8 more

Silicon carbide (SiC) has become a key player in the realization of scalable quantum technologies due to its ability to host optically addressable spin qubits and wafer-size samples. Here, we have demonstrated optically detected magnetic resonance (ODMR) with resonant excitation and clearly identified the ground state energy levels of the NV centers in 4H-SiC. Coherent manipulation of NV centers in SiC has been achieved with Rabi and Ramsey oscillations. Finally, we show the successful generation and characterization of single nitrogen vacancy (NV) center in SiC employing ion implantation. Our results highligh the key role of NV centers in SiC as a potential candidate for quantum information processing.

arXiv:2002.02613•Nano Letters•Jul 9, 2020•83 citations

Scalable Integration of Cavity-Enhanced Silicon Vacancy Centers on a CMOS-Compatible 4H-SiCOI Platform

Yuanhao Qin, Tianyuan Cui, B Yang +13 more

Scalable solid-state quantum sensors require simultaneous advances in spin-readout fidelity, photon collection efficiency, and device-level integration, which so far have remained elusive on most material platforms. Here, we overcome these limitations by coupling silicon vacancy spin centers to an array of circular Bragg grating cavities on a scalable thin-film silicon carbide-on-insulator (4H-SiCOI) platform. By employing anti-Stokes excitation, we show that the cavity-enhanced emission compensates for intrinsically weak anti-Stokes absorption, yielding a 24.6-fold increase in collected fluorescence, a high 1.78% spin-readout contrast at zero field, and a 6.42-fold improvement in magnetometry sensitivity. This high spin-readout fidelity further enables the spectroscopic resolution of intrinsic dark-spin bath interactions in 4H-SiCOI, revealing the underlying decoherence mechanisms. Our work establishes cavity-enhanced anti-Stokes excitation as a general and feasible route for silicon carbide quantum technologies, paving the way for scalable manufacturing of spin-based quantum sensors and integrated photonic circuits.

Nano Letters•Apr 22, 2026•0 citations

Coupling nitrogen vacancy centers in silicon carbide to nanophotonic resonators

Ivan Zhigulin, Konosuke Shimazaki, Samuel M. Stephens +5 more

Silicon carbide (SiC) is a promising platform for scalable quantum technologies owing to its well-established, wafer-scale industrial processing. SiC also hosts a variety of optically active color centres including the nitrogen vacancy defect that has a spin-triplet ground state. However, strong phonon coupling in the infrared range limits photon extraction from these defects. Here, we use nanophotonic structures, specifically micro-pillar and micro-disk resonators, to enhance optical collection and spin-readout. The micro-pillar geometry yields a 4-fold increase in photon collection, accompanied by a 2.4-fold reduction in spectral noise in optically detected magnetic resonance measurements. Consequently, the magnetic field sensitivity is improved by 24%. The large mode volume of the micro-disk supports resonances spanning 1150-1250 nm, enabling broadband coupling to nitrogen vacancy emission lines. Our results demonstrate that fabrication of scalable photonic structures efficiently improves performance of silicon carbide color centers for integrated quantum light generation and sensing.

physics.opticsCross-listedarXiv:2602.21505•Feb 26, 2026

Solid-state color-center quantum sensors: materials, engineering strategies, and machine learning-enabled advances

Hamdin Ozden, Birol Ozturk

Solid-state color-center spin defects provide a versatile platform for quantum sensing with applications ranging from nanoscale magnetometry to thermometry and electrometry. This review surveys recent progress in nitrogen-vacancy centers in diamond and defect spins in silicon carbide (SiC), with emphasis on their material properties, fabrication strategies, and coherence engineering. Key defect creation and optimization techniques, including ion implantation, femtosecond laser writing, focused ion beam nanofabrication, isotopic engineering, and surface passivation, are discussed in the context of improving spin coherence and optical performance. Fundamental quantum measurement protocols, optically detected magnetic resonance, Rabi oscillations, Ramsey interferometry, and spin echo, are reviewed as a hierarchical framework for characterizing spin control, dephasing, and intrinsic coherence. The review further highlights microscale sensing architectures and examines the growing role of machine learning in pulse optimization, adaptive estimation, and data-driven imaging. Finally, current challenges and future directions are outlined, focusing on scalability, environmental robustness, and autonomous operation. Together, these developments position diamond and SiC color centers as leading platforms for next-generation solid-state quantum sensors.

Journal of Physics Condensed Matter•Sep 14, 2026•0 citations

Enhanced readout contrast of V2 ensembles in 4H-SiC through resonant optical excitation

Infiter Tathfif, Samuel G. Carter

The V2 silicon vacancy defect in 4H-SiC has emerged as a promising system for quantum technologies due to its favorable optical and spin properties and the advantages of the SiC host. However, the readout contrast - an important benchmark for quantum sensing - of V2 ensembles for optically-detected magnetic resonance (ODMR) is relatively low, usually <1$\%$ at room temperature. To overcome this challenge, we resonantly excite the V2 ensembles at cryogenic temperatures and compare the results with the off-resonant case. We report a maximum ODMR contrast of 50$\%$ with only 2 $μ$W of resonant laser power, almost 100 times improvement over off-resonant excitation. We attribute this high readout contrast to a subset of V2 centers that have one spin-selective optical transition resonant with the laser. The ODMR contrast decreases with temperature, approaching the non-resonant contrast by 60 K, likely due to broadening of the optical transition linewidths. We achieve a maximum sensitivity of 100 nT/$\sqrt{Hz}$ with a resonant laser power of 300 $μ$W, while 100 times more non-resonant excitation power is needed to achieve comparable sensitivity.

quant-pharXiv:2512.02235•Dec 3, 2025

Quantum sensing of radio-frequency signal with NV centers in SiC

Zhengzhi Jiang, Hongbing Cai, Robert Čerňanský +2 more

Silicon carbide is an emerging platform for quantum technologies that provides wafer scale and low-cost industrial fabrication. The material also hosts high-quality defects with long coherence times that can be used for quantum computation and sensing applications. Using an ensemble of nitrogen-vacancy centers and an XY8-2 correlation spectroscopy approach, we demonstrate a room-temperature quantum sensing of an artificial AC field centered at ~900 kHz with a spectral resolution of 10 kHz. Implementing the synchronized readout technique, we further extend the frequency resolution of our sensor to 0.01 kHz. These results pave the first steps for silicon carbide quantum sensors toward low-cost nuclear magnetic resonance spectrometers with a wide range of practical applications in medical, chemical, and biological analysis.

Science Advances•May 17, 2023•64 citations

This work presents an industrially scalable, power-efficient and high-performance quantum magnetometer chip based on proprietary 4H-silicon carbide (SiC) technology, leveraging wafer-scale fabrication techniques to optimize V2 silicon vacancy color centers for highly reproducible, industry-grade fabrication with precise control of depth and density. The integration of these color center ensembles into a planar silicon carbide waveguide enables efficient excitation of a large ensemble and simplifies fluorescence extraction compared to standard confocal methods. We report continuous-wave (CW) optically detected magnetic resonance measurements, complemented by Rabi, Ramsey, and Hahn-echo sequences, which demonstrate coherent capabilities of the large embedded ensemble of V2 centers. Based on the data, our device exhibits sensor shot-noise limited sensitivities 2-3 orders of magnitude lower compared to more complex confocal techniques. Collectively, these advancements simplify the quantum sensor architecture, enhance sensitivity, and streamline optical excitation and collection, thereby paving the way for the development of next-generation SiC-quantum sensing technologies.

Silicon carbide (SiC) has become a key player in the realization of scalable quantum technologies due to its ability to host optically addressable spin qubits and wafer-size samples. Here, we have demonstrated optically detected magnetic resonance (ODMR) with resonant excitation and clearly identified the ground state energy levels of the NV centers in 4H-SiC. Coherent manipulation of NV centers in SiC has been achieved with Rabi and Ramsey oscillations. Finally, we show the successful generation and characterization of single nitrogen vacancy (NV) center in SiC employing ion implantation. Our results highligh the key role of NV centers in SiC as a potential candidate for quantum information processing.

Scalable solid-state quantum sensors require simultaneous advances in spin-readout fidelity, photon collection efficiency, and device-level integration, which so far have remained elusive on most material platforms. Here, we overcome these limitations by coupling silicon vacancy spin centers to an array of circular Bragg grating cavities on a scalable thin-film silicon carbide-on-insulator (4H-SiCOI) platform. By employing anti-Stokes excitation, we show that the cavity-enhanced emission compensates for intrinsically weak anti-Stokes absorption, yielding a 24.6-fold increase in collected fluorescence, a high 1.78% spin-readout contrast at zero field, and a 6.42-fold improvement in magnetometry sensitivity. This high spin-readout fidelity further enables the spectroscopic resolution of intrinsic dark-spin bath interactions in 4H-SiCOI, revealing the underlying decoherence mechanisms. Our work establishes cavity-enhanced anti-Stokes excitation as a general and feasible route for silicon carbide quantum technologies, paving the way for scalable manufacturing of spin-based quantum sensors and integrated photonic circuits.

Silicon carbide (SiC) is a promising platform for scalable quantum technologies owing to its well-established, wafer-scale industrial processing. SiC also hosts a variety of optically active color centres including the nitrogen vacancy defect that has a spin-triplet ground state. However, strong phonon coupling in the infrared range limits photon extraction from these defects. Here, we use nanophotonic structures, specifically micro-pillar and micro-disk resonators, to enhance optical collection and spin-readout. The micro-pillar geometry yields a 4-fold increase in photon collection, accompanied by a 2.4-fold reduction in spectral noise in optically detected magnetic resonance measurements. Consequently, the magnetic field sensitivity is improved by 24%. The large mode volume of the micro-disk supports resonances spanning 1150-1250 nm, enabling broadband coupling to nitrogen vacancy emission lines. Our results demonstrate that fabrication of scalable photonic structures efficiently improves performance of silicon carbide color centers for integrated quantum light generation and sensing.

Solid-state color-center spin defects provide a versatile platform for quantum sensing with applications ranging from nanoscale magnetometry to thermometry and electrometry. This review surveys recent progress in nitrogen-vacancy centers in diamond and defect spins in silicon carbide (SiC), with emphasis on their material properties, fabrication strategies, and coherence engineering. Key defect creation and optimization techniques, including ion implantation, femtosecond laser writing, focused ion beam nanofabrication, isotopic engineering, and surface passivation, are discussed in the context of improving spin coherence and optical performance. Fundamental quantum measurement protocols, optically detected magnetic resonance, Rabi oscillations, Ramsey interferometry, and spin echo, are reviewed as a hierarchical framework for characterizing spin control, dephasing, and intrinsic coherence. The review further highlights microscale sensing architectures and examines the growing role of machine learning in pulse optimization, adaptive estimation, and data-driven imaging. Finally, current challenges and future directions are outlined, focusing on scalability, environmental robustness, and autonomous operation. Together, these developments position diamond and SiC color centers as leading platforms for next-generation solid-state quantum sensors.

The V2 silicon vacancy defect in 4H-SiC has emerged as a promising system for quantum technologies due to its favorable optical and spin properties and the advantages of the SiC host. However, the readout contrast - an important benchmark for quantum sensing - of V2 ensembles for optically-detected magnetic resonance (ODMR) is relatively low, usually <1

\%

at room temperature. To overcome this challenge, we resonantly excite the V2 ensembles at cryogenic temperatures and compare the results with the off-resonant case. We report a maximum ODMR contrast of 50

\%

with only 2

μ

W of resonant laser power, almost 100 times improvement over off-resonant excitation. We attribute this high readout contrast to a subset of V2 centers that have one spin-selective optical transition resonant with the laser. The ODMR contrast decreases with temperature, approaching the non-resonant contrast by 60 K, likely due to broadening of the optical transition linewidths. We achieve a maximum sensitivity of 100 nT/

\sqrt{Hz}

with a resonant laser power of 300

μ

W, while 100 times more non-resonant excitation power is needed to achieve comparable sensitivity.

Silicon carbide is an emerging platform for quantum technologies that provides wafer scale and low-cost industrial fabrication. The material also hosts high-quality defects with long coherence times that can be used for quantum computation and sensing applications. Using an ensemble of nitrogen-vacancy centers and an XY8-2 correlation spectroscopy approach, we demonstrate a room-temperature quantum sensing of an artificial AC field centered at ~900 kHz with a spectral resolution of 10 kHz. Implementing the synchronized readout technique, we further extend the frequency resolution of our sensor to 0.01 kHz. These results pave the first steps for silicon carbide quantum sensors toward low-cost nuclear magnetic resonance spectrometers with a wide range of practical applications in medical, chemical, and biological analysis.