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ACS Photonics

Experimental Optical Properties of Single Nitrogen Vacancy Centers in Silicon Carbide at Room Temperature

Junfeng Wang, Zhenghao Liu, Fei-Fei Yan, Qiang Li, Xinge Yang, Liping Guo, Xiong Zhou, Wei Huang, Jin‐Shi Xu, Chuan‐Feng Li, Guang‐Can Guo

Published Jun 19, 2020• 46 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Robust single spin color centers in solid state systems with telecom wavelength emission are vital to quantum photonics and quantum networks. The nitrogen vacancy (NV) centers in silicon carbide (SiC) have become promising platforms for those applications. However, little is known about the detailed optical properties of the NV centers. In this paper, we investigate the photophysics of the single NV centers in 4H-SiC. The results demonstrate that the NV centers comprise three energy-level electronic structures. Particularly, for c -axis NV centers, both the excitation and the emission polarization degrees are larger than 90%. Photon purity and photostability of the single NV centers are maintained at an elevated temperature up to 400 K. These experiments constitute an important step toward using the NV centers in SiC with respect to quantum photonics.

DOI
10.1021/acsphotonics.0c00218

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Robust single spin color centers in solid state systems with telecom wavelength emission are vital to quantum photonics and quantum networks. The nitrogen vacancy (NV) centers in silicon carbide (SiC) have become promising platforms for those applications. However, little is known about the detailed optical properties of the NV centers. In this paper, we investigate the photophysics of the single NV centers in 4H-SiC. The results demonstrate that the NV centers comprise three energy-level electronic structures. Particularly, for c -axis NV centers, both the excitation and the emission polarization degrees are larger than 90%. Photon purity and photostability of the single NV centers are maintained at an elevated temperature up to 400 K. These experiments constitute an important step toward using the NV centers in SiC with respect to quantum photonics.
Solid-state color centers with manipulatable spin qubits and telecom-ranged fluorescence are ideal platforms for quantum communications and distributed quantum computations. In this work, we coherently control the nitrogen-vacancy (NV) center spins in silicon carbide at room temperature, in which telecom-wavelength emission is detected. We increase the NV concentration sixfold through optimization of implantation conditions. Hence, coherent control of NV center spins is achieved at room temperature, and the coherence time T_{2} can be reached to around 17.1 μs. Furthermore, an investigation of fluorescence properties of single NV centers shows that they are room-temperature photostable single-photon sources at telecom range. Taking advantage of technologically mature materials, the experiment demonstrates that the NV centers in silicon carbide are promising platforms for large-scale integrated quantum photonics and long-distance quantum networks.
Solid-state spin defects in semiconductor matrices have become a robust medium for holding electron qubit ensembles. In this paper, the features of NV centers’ spin polarization in a silicon carbide 6 H -SiC crystal, and the laser excitation influence on the coherent properties of the color center were studied by the photoinduced pulsed EPR spectroscopy (W-band, 94 GHz). After the optical pulse, in the dark-mode regime, the characteristic time of the spin-phonon interaction of NV defects with the local environment lengthens by 1 order of magnitude compared to continuous laser irradiation, reaching a value of T 1 = 0.74 s at temperature of 50 K. An extremely efficient spin polarization (> 90%) of NV centers was discovered, which is necessary for establishing the initial pure quantum state. The obtained spin-optical and coherent properties delineate the time domain of multipulse quantum manipulations involving optical and microwave sources for promising NV centers in quantum photonics.
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.
We have investigated the optical properties of the ${(\mathrm{NV})}^{\ensuremath{-}}$ center in 3C-SiC to determine the photoluminscence zero phonon line (ZPL) associated with the $^{3}\mathrm{E}\ensuremath{\rightarrow}^{3}\mathrm{A}_{2}$ intracenter transition. Combining electron paramagnetic resonance and photoluminescence spectroscopy, we show that the ${\mathrm{NV}}^{\ensuremath{-}}\phantom{\rule{0.28em}{0ex}}\mathrm{center}$ in 3C-SiC has a ZPL line at 1.468 $\ensuremath{\mu}\mathrm{m}$ in excellent agreement with theoretical predictions. The ZPL line can be observed up to T=100T=100T=100 K. The negatively charged NV center in 3C-SiC is the structural isomorphe of the NV center in diamond and has equally a spin S=1S=1S=1 ground state and a spin S=1S=1S=1 excited state, long spin lattice relaxation times and presents optically induced groudstate spin polarization. These properties make it already a strong competitor to the NV center in diamond, but as its optical domain is shifted in the near infrared at $1.5\phantom{\rule{0.16em}{0ex}}\ensuremath{\mu}\mathrm{m}$, the NV center in 3C-SiC is compatible with quantum photonic networks and silicon based microelectronics.
The development of reliable devices to generate single photons is crucial for applications in quantum cryptography, as well as for fundamental quantum optics experiments. Due to their extremely high photostability at room temperature, optically active defects in solids, the so called color centers, are among the most promising candidates. Single NV (nitrogen-vacancy) centers in diamond have been demonstrated to be able to generate single photons and have already shown advantages compared to attenuated laser pulses in a quantum cryptography experiment. The nitrogen-vacancy center (NV center) in diamond consists of a substitutional nitrogen atom and an adjacent vacancy. This complex exhibits an optical transition with a fluorescence lifetime of 11.6 ns. The room temperature spectrum of the NV center consists of the zero-phonon line at 637 nm and broad phononic sidebands with a FWHM of more than 100 nm. Due to the existence of a shelving level the efficiency of the NV center as a single photon source is limited. Additionally, the high diffraction index of bulk diamond restricts the efficiency to collect the fluorescence light.
The silicon-vacancy (SiV) and nitrogen-vacancy (NV) centers in diamond are commonly regarded as prototypical defects for solid-state quantum information processing. Here, we show that when silicon and nitrogen are simultaneously introduced into the diamond lattice, these defects can strongly interact and form larger complexes. Nitrogen atoms strongly bind to Si and SiV centers, and complex formation can occur. Using a combination of hybrid density functional theory and group theory, we analyze the electronic structure and provide various useful physical properties, such as hyperfine structure, quasilocal vibrational modes, and a zero-phonon line, to enable experimental identification of these complexes. We demonstrate that the presence of substitutional silicon adjacent to nitrogen significantly shifts the donor level toward the conduction band, resulting in an activation energy for the SiN center that is comparable to phosphorus. We also find that the neutral SiNV center is of particular interest due to its photon emission at $\ensuremath{\sim}1530\phantom{\rule{0.28em}{0ex}}\mathrm{nm}$, which falls within the CCC band of telecom wavelengths and its paramagnetic nature. In addition, the optical transition associated with the SiNV0{\mathrm{SiNV}}^{0}SiNV0 color center exhibits very small electron-phonon coupling (Huang-Rhys factor = 0.78) resulting in high quantum efficiency (Debye-Waller factor = 46%) for single-photon emission. These features render this new center very attractive for a potential application in scalable quantum telecommunication networks.