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Nano Letters

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

Yuanhao Qin, Tianyuan Cui, B Yang, J Zhang, Xiuqi Zhang, Xuqiang Wang, Bowen Chen, Yifan Zhu, X Li, Chengli Wang, Lei Hou, Wei Lu, Xin Ou, Ailun Yi, Jing Zhou, Jiaxiang Zhang

Published Apr 22, 2026• 0 citations
Publisher

Abstract

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.

DOI
10.1021/acs.nanolett.6c00613

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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.
We report electrical spin state readout and coherent control of an ensemble ($\sim540)ofsiliconvacancies(540) of silicon vacancies (540)ofsiliconvacancies(\mathrm{V}_{\mathrm{Si}}^{-}$) in a silicon carbide-on-insulator (SiCOI) platform, with excitation wavelengths from 780 to 990 nm, demonstrating for the first time spin state readout well beyond the zero phonon line of the V2 VSi−\mathrm{V}_{\mathrm{Si}}^{-}VSi−​. By implementing photoelectrical detection of magnetic resonance in thin-film SiCOI, we merge a scalable spin readout technique requiring no collection optics, together with a promising platform for future scalable and CMOS-compatible integrated photonics. Furthermore, we provide a comparison of optical and electrical readout between bulk silicon carbide (SiC) and thin-film SiCOI, revealing that our thin-film processing has a measured T2T_2T2​ coherence time of ≈7μ\approx 7 μ≈7μs , similar to that in the bulk SiC. These results extend the capabilities of SiCOI toward electronic and spin-based devices for scalable quantum technologies over a wide range of excitation wavelengths.
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) 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.
An outstanding challenge for color center-based quantum information processing technologies is the integration of optically-coherent emitters into scalable thin-film photonics. Here, we report on the integration of near-transform-limited silicon vacancy (VSi_{\text{Si}}Si​) defects into microdisk resonators fabricated in a CMOS-compatible 4H-Silicon Carbide-on-Insulator platform. We demonstrate a single-emitter cooperativity of up to 0.8 as well as optical superradiance from a pair of color centers coupled to the same cavity mode. We investigate the effect of multimode interference on the photon scattering dynamics from this multi-emitter cavity quantum electrodynamics system. These results are crucial for the development of quantum networks in silicon carbide and bridge the classical-quantum photonics gap by uniting optically-coherent spin defects with wafer-scalable, state-of-the-art photonics.
Silicon vacancy centers in 4H-silicon carbide (SiC) host a long-lived electronic spin with spin-resolved optical transitions. This makes them a great candidate for implementing a spin–photon interface, an important building block of quantum networks. However, the fraction of coherently scattered photons is intrinsically low, limiting the achievable communication rates. To address this problem, we integrate V2 centers within a SiC membrane into a fiber-based Fabry–Perot microcavity. We find that SiC is uniquely suited for this approach, offering extremely low losses as we evidence by a high cavity finesse F ≈40000 and naturally available maximal cavity–emitter coupling due to the perfect alignment of polarization modes and the dipole orientation. We observe a 13.3-fold Purcell enhancement of the zero phonon line of a single emitter, constituting an efficient source of coherent photons for this novel material platform, and opening the path toward a deterministic spin–photon interface.
Optically addressable solid-state color center spin qubits have become important platforms for quantum information processing, quantum networks and quantum sensing. The readout of color center spin states with optically detected magnetic resonance (ODMR) technology is traditionally based on Stokes excitation, where the energy of the exciting laser is higher than that of the emission photons. Here, we investigate an unconventional approach using anti-Stokes excitation to detect the ODMR signal of silicon vacancy defect spin in silicon carbide, where the exciting laser has lower energy than the emitted photons. Laser power, microwave power and temperature dependence of the anti-Stokes excited ODMR are systematically studied, in which the behavior of ODMR contrast and linewidth is shown to be similar to that of Stokes excitation. However, the ODMR contrast is several times that of the Stokes excitation. Coherent control of silicon vacancy spin under anti-Stokes excitation is then realized at room temperature. The spin coherence properties are the same as those of Stokes excitation, but with a signal contrast that is around three times greater. To illustrate the enhanced spin readout contrast under anti-Stokes excitation, we also provide a theoretical model. The experiments demonstrate that the current anti-Stokes excitation ODMR approach has promising applications in quantum information processing and quantum sensing.