Room-temperature quantum microwave emitters based on spin defects in silicon carbide

Atomic-scale defects in silicon carbide are always present and usually limit the performance of this material in high-power electronics and radiofrequency communication. Here, we reveal a family of homotypic silicon vacancy defects in silicon carbide exhibiting attractive spin properties. In particu...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Nature physics 2014-02, Vol.10 (2), p.157-162
Main Authors: Kraus, H., Soltamov, V. A., Riedel, D., Väth, S., Fuchs, F., Sperlich, A., Baranov, P. G., Dyakonov, V., Astakhov, G. V.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
639/624/1075/1081
639/624/399/1099
Atomic
Atoms & subatomic particles
Classical and Continuum Physics
Complex Systems
Condensed Matter Physics
Crystal defects
Crystals
Electronics
Emissions
Ground state
Magnetometers
Mathematical and Computational Physics
Microwaves
Molecular
Optical and Plasma Physics
Physics
Quantum physics
Qubits (quantum computing)
Radiofrequency
Silicon
Silicon carbide
Theoretical
Vacancies
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Summary:Atomic-scale defects in silicon carbide are always present and usually limit the performance of this material in high-power electronics and radiofrequency communication. Here, we reveal a family of homotypic silicon vacancy defects in silicon carbide exhibiting attractive spin properties. In particular, the defect spins can be initialized and read out even at room temperature by means of optically detected magnetic resonance, suggesting appealing applications such as spin qubits and spin magnetometers. Using this technique we detect two-quantum spin resonances, providing strong evidence for the S  = 3/2 ground state of the silicon vacancy defects. The optically induced population inversion of these high-spin ground states leads to stimulated microwave emission, which we directly observed in our silicon carbide crystals. The analysis based on the experimentally obtained parameters shows that this property can be used to implement solid-state masers and extraordinarily sensitive radiofrequency amplifiers. Defects in silicon carbide can produce continuous-wave microwaves at room temperature. Spectroscopic analysis indicates a photoinduced inversion of the population in the spin ground states, which makes the defects a potential route to stimulated amplification of microwave radiation.
ISSN:1745-2473
1745-2481
DOI:10.1038/nphys2826