Spin coherence and echo modulation of the silicon vacancy in $4H\ensuremath{-}\mathrm{SiC}$ at room temperature

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Spin coherence and echo modulation of the silicon vacancy in $4 H - SiC$ at room temperature

S. G. Carter, Ö. O. Soykal, Pratibha Dev, Sophia E. Economou, and E. R. Glaser

Phys. Rev. B 92, 161202(R) – Published 12 October 2015

Abstract

The silicon vacancy in silicon carbide is a strong emergent candidate for applications in quantum information processing and sensing. We perform room temperature optically detected magnetic resonance and spin echo measurements on an ensemble of vacancies and find the spin echo properties depend strongly on magnetic field. The spin echo decay time varies from less than $10 μ s$ at low fields to $80 μ s$ at 68 mT, and a strong field-dependent spin echo modulation is also observed. The modulation is attributed to the interaction with nuclear spins and is well described by a theoretical model.

Received 13 January 2015
Revised 16 September 2015

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.92.161202

Authors & Affiliations

S. G. Carter^1,*, Ö. O. Soykal², Pratibha Dev^2,†, Sophia E. Economou^1,‡, and E. R. Glaser¹

¹Naval Research Laboratory, Washington, DC 20375, USA
²National Research Council Research Associate at the Naval Research Laboratory, Washington, DC 20375, USA

^*sam.carter@nrl.navy.mil
^†Present address: Department of Physics and Astronomy, Howard University, Washington, DC, USA.
^‡Present address: Department of Physics, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, Virginia 24061, USA.

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Vol. 92, Iss. 16 — 15 October 2015

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Figure 1
(a) Experimental setup for optically detected magnetic resonance (ODMR). The scattered laser light is filtered from the photoluminescence (PL) by a long pass filter (lpf) and sent to a silicon photodiode (Si PD). (b) PL at 20 and 290 K, exciting at 532 nm, with 290 K PL scaled down by a factor of 2 for clarity. The typical lpf collection range is shaded in gray, and the typical laser energy is indicated with a vertical arrow. (c) ODMR spectra for $B = 34 mT ∥ c$ axis for a series of microwave powers. The vertical scale is the percent change in PL. (d) ODMR at $- 10 dBm$ from (c) with the scale expanded to show the hyperfine splitting. Individual Gaussian functions of a three-peak fit are plotted with the spectrum.
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Figure 2
(a) Energy levels of the $S = 3 / 2$ spin states as a function of magnetic field parallel to the $c$ axis. (b) Energy level diagram showing optical excitation and emission between the ground states (GS) and the excited states (ES), along with possible relaxation channels through the intermediate states (IS) that result in GS spin polarization. (c) ODMR map as a function of microwave frequency and magnetic field (parallel to the $c$ axis). The color scale mapping of the ODMR signal is logarithmic as displayed by the color bar right of (d). (d) Model calculations of the ODMR with a weak perpendicular magnetic field of 0.05 mT. The model signal maximum has been scaled to match the experimental maximum, using the same color bar. (e) ODMR amplitude for transitions $a$ and $b$ as a function of the magnetic field.
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Figure 3
(a) Hahn echo sequence with repetition period $T_{R}$ . Narrow blue rectangles represent microwave pulses, and the shorter red rectangles represent laser pulses. (b) Microwave Rabi oscillations with only a single microwave pulse in the sequence, with $T_{R} = 10 μ s$ . The red line is a fit to an exponentially decaying cosine. (c) Spin echo with $T_{R} = 40 μ s$ and $T = 1 μ s$ . The red line is a fit to $- exp (- | t - 2 T | / T_{2}^{*})$ modulated by a cosine. (d) Spin echo as a function of $t$ for a series of values of $T$ , with $T_{R} = 40 μ s$ . The echo appears at $t = 2 T$ . All measurements in (b)–(d) are at room temperature with a magnetic field of 34 mT parallel to the $c$ axis and a microwave power of 20 dBm.
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Figure 4
(a)–(e) Experimental and theoretical echo signal as a function of $T$ for a series of magnetic fields parallel to the $c$ axis, with $T_{R} = 66.7 μ s$ . The experimental echo signal is obtained by taking the difference between the ODMR signal at $t = 2 T + 0.8 μ s$ and $t = 2 T$ , and the theory is normalized to best match the experimental data. (f) Echo as a function of $T$ at $B = 68 mT$ and $T_{R} = 125 μ s$ , with an exponential fit shown as a dashed line. All measurements are at room temperature.
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Physical Review B

covering condensed matter and materials physics

Spin coherence and echo modulation of the silicon vacancy in $4 H - SiC$ at room temperature

S. G. Carter, Ö. O. Soykal, Pratibha Dev, Sophia E. Economou, and E. R. Glaser

Phys. Rev. B 92, 161202(R) – Published 12 October 2015

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Physical Review B

covering condensed matter and materials physics

Spin coherence and echo modulation of the silicon vacancy in 4H−SiC at room temperature

S. G. Carter, Ö. O. Soykal, Pratibha Dev, Sophia E. Economou, and E. R. Glaser

Phys. Rev. B 92, 161202(R) – Published 12 October 2015

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Spin coherence and echo modulation of the silicon vacancy in $4 H - SiC$ at room temperature