A review on single photon sources in silicon carbide

Lohrmann, Alexander; Johnson, Brett C.; McCallum, Jeffrey C.; Castelletto, Stefania

doi:10.1088/1361-6633/aa5171

Cited by 191 publications

(207 citation statements)

References 170 publications

(257 reference statements)

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“…Some color centers, such as the nitrogen vacancy (NV) center in diamond [6][7][8][9][10][11], are bright enough to be investigated in the single defect limit using single-molecule microscopy techniques [12,13]. While diamond is the most celebrated host material, the last several years have witnessed the discovery of defect-based single photon sources in SiC [1,[14][15][16][17][18][19][20], ZnO [21][22][23][24][25][26], GaN [27], WSe2 [28][29][30], WS2 [31], and hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN) [32][33][34][35][36][37][38][39][40][41][42][43][44][45]. The latter three materials exist as two-dimensional monolayers and layered solids, thus offering the possibility of integrating single-photon sources with van der Waals heterostructure devices for tuning and other control.…”

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confidence: 99%

Optical Absorption and Emission Mechanisms of Single Defects in Hexagonal Boron Nitride

2017

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Abstract:We investigate the polarization selection rules of sharp zero-phonon lines (ZPLs) from isolated defects in hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN) and compare our findings with the predictions of a configuration coordinate model involving two electronic states. Our survey, which spans the spectral range ~550-740 nm, reveals that, in disagreement with a two-level model, the absorption and emission dipoles are often misaligned. We relate the dipole misalignment angle ( ) to the ZPL Stokes shift ( ) and find that ≈ 0° when corresponds to an allowed h-BN phonon frequency and that 0°≤ ≤ 90° when exceeds the maximum allowed h-BN phonon frequency. Consequently, a two-level configuration coordinate model succeeds at describing excitations mediated by the creation of one optical phonon but fails at describing excitations that require the creation of multiple phonons. We propose that direct excitations requiring the creation of multiple phonons are inefficient due to the low Huang-Rhys factors in In the Frank-Condon approximation, where the fast electronic rearrangement precedes the slower lattice relaxation, the transition rate from to ( * ,is proportional to where * − * are the associated Laguerre polynomials and is a measure of defect-lattice coupling called the Huang-Rhys factor. In natural units = To investigate the polarization properties of absorption, we rotate the polarization of the exciting light and monitor the total fluorescence intensity. The result of this absorption measurement is shown as the green triangles in Fig. 2b. Fixing the polarization of the exciting light to maximize the fluorescence, we determine the polarization of the emitted photons using a polarization analyzer placed in the collection path of the microscope. The result of this emission measurement is shown as the red circles in Fig. 2b. The solid lines are best fits to the data using the equationwhere 〈 〉 in each fit is the orientation of the absorption or emission dipole spectrally averaged over the collection window. As predicted by Equation 1, we find that the maxima of absorption and emission are aligned for this defect.Additionally, we have shown previously that the temperature dependence of the ZPL intensity in h-BN is well-modeled by the temperature-dependent DebyeWaller factor [33]. Thus, we conclude that the configuration coordinate model is a good description of the observed properties for the defect shown in Fig. 2.A survey of defect ZPLs that span an appreciable energy range reveals that, in contrast to the data shown in Fig. 2 For the emission measurement we fix the polarization angle of the exciting light to ( ) and record an emission spectrum for a series of positions of the polarization analyzer in the collection path. In an analogous fashion to the absorption case we obtain ( , ) and ( ) for the emitted light. For the case of emission we apply a calibration to ( ) to correct for wavelength-and polarization-dependent retardances (see Supporting Information) introduced by the collection path of the confocal microscope. To be...

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confidence: 99%

Optical Absorption and Emission Mechanisms of Single Defects in Hexagonal Boron Nitride

2017

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“…Furthermore, the realization of large-scale quantum photonic systems will depend on scalable fabrication techniques and on the tunability to match the resonance wavelength with the defect transition frequency without degrading the cavity Q. Finally, following the recent success with diamond, other materials hosting color centers with similar quantum properties are emerging, with suitable infrared operation, low-cost single crystal fabrication and CMOS compatibility such as SiC 101 , or 2D materials, which could provide a higher light confinement and control if integrated in nanostructures 102 , albeit these materials have not reached the same level of maturity in the here targeted applications.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Advances in diamond nanofabrication for ultrasensitive devices

Castelletto

Rosa

Blackledge³

et al. 2017

Microsyst Nanoeng

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This paper reviews some of the major recent advances in single-crystal diamond nanofabrication and its impact in nano-and micromechanical, nanophotonics and optomechanical components. These constituents of integrated devices incorporating specific dopants in the material provide the capacity to enhance the sensitivity in detecting mass and forces as well as magnetic field down to quantum mechanical limits and will lead pioneering innovations in ultrasensitive sensing and precision measurements in the realm of the medical sciences, quantum sciences and related technologies. INTRODUCTIONDiamond is an ideal platform for nano-and microfabrication leading to a range of robust sensors. This is due to the outstanding mechanical and wide spectral optical transparency of diamond, combined with biocompatibility and lack of toxicity in both bulk and nanostructures. Moreover, diamond can be fabricated with high purity and control using chemical vapor deposition. However, due to its hardness and cost, some of its applications in nanomechanics, optomechanics and nanophotonics reside mainly in its polycrystalline or nanocrystalline forms, which do not always retain the nuance of the outstanding properties of monocrystalline diamond.A recent review 1 describes diamond optical and mechanical properties compared to other materials currently used for optomechanical components (Si, Si 3 N 4 , SiC, and α-Al 2 O 3 ), showing that, in principle, there are more favorable properties of diamond for nanomechanical and optomechanical realizations. Therefore, a considerable effort has been taking place over the last five years to exploit these properties in a wide spectrum of diamond nanosystems. To date, single crystal diamond utilization for nanomechanical components 2 , (for example, nano electromechanical systems (NEMS) and micro electro-mechanical systems (MEMS)), as well for nanophotonics 3,4 compared to above mentioned materials, has been limited due to its growth requirements. In fact, a single crystal diamond cannot be grown on any other substrate than itself. This prevents wafer-scale processing and it represents a challenge in the application of conventional diamond nanofabrication methods. On the other hand, polycrystalline diamond films, which can be grown in high quality from 4 to 6 inches' wafers 5 , permit to fabricate optomechanical components with quality factors and oscillation frequencies rivaling single crystal diamond 6 .

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“…The parameter a indicates the strength of the metastable state transition, as the metastable state or ISC transition is a dark transition, high values of a indicates a lower emitter quantum efficiency. Details of the photo-physics of single-photon sources in SiC can be found in a previous review [36].…”

Section: Optically and Electrically Driven Single Photon Sources (Spss)mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In this paper, we will review recent advances in SiC color center studies, fabrication and quantum control, with the focus to the last five years of efforts after the first surge of interest [36]. We first focus on categorizing the color centers with respect to their quantum properties, showing their key studies to assess their quantum properties, benchmarked to the performance criteria needed for the applications, highlighting the major achievements that could allow in terms of integration and fabrication to move towards the implementation of scalable spin-photon entanglement.…”

Section: Background and Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Such techniques are important on one side to fully characterize a defect for its identification and assess its potential in quantum sensing. Color centres in material with a high electron spin state that can be addressed optically, can be used for quantum sensing by combining a series of spin control and manipulation methods described in [36], such as DC and AC magnetic field ODMR, Rabi and Ramsey oscillations, Hanh-echo and other more complicated sequence used to extend the lifetime of the electron spin (T2 coherence time) and its control, such as dynamic decoupling spin measurements [132]. It is out of the scope of this review to enter in details of these methods and the reader can refer to other review papers such as [99,133] or the specific papers where these methods have been applied to SiC [69,83,84].…”

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Silicon carbide color centers for quantum applications

2020

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Silicon carbide has recently surged as an alternative material for scalable and integrated quantum photonics, as it is a host for naturally occurring color centers within its bandgap, emitting from the UV to the IR even at telecom wavelength. Some of these color centers have been proved to be characterized by quantum properties associated with their single-photon emission and their coherent spin state control, which make them ideal for quantum technology, such as quantum communication, computation, quantum sensing, metrology and can constitute the elements of future quantum networks. Due to its outstanding electrical, mechanical, and optical properties which extend to optical nonlinear properties, silicon carbide can also supply a more amenable platform for photonics devices with respect to other wide bandgap semiconductors, being already an unsurpassed material for high power microelectronics. In this review, we will summarize the current findings on this material color centers quantum properties such as quantum emission via optical and electrical excitation, optical spin polarization and coherent spin control and manipulation. Their fabrication methods are also summarized, showing the need for on-demand and nanometric control of the color centers fabrication location in the material. Their current applications in single-photon sources, quantum sensing of strain, magnetic and electric fields, spin-photon interface are also described. Finally, the efforts in the integration of these color centers in photonics devices and their fabrication challenges are described.proved to host these types of color centers, we can now determine that the material has approached the quality needed for quantum applications development.The first bulk material studied for applications in quantum technology is diamond. It was possible to isolate single color centers and determine their role for application in quantum technologies. As an example, the nitrogen-vacancy (NV) center [10], hosted by the diamond matrix, has become the leading color center in applications such as quantum sensing [11], which is a more achievable application on the road map towards quantum networks. Further, other color centers such as the Germanium vacancy (GeV) [12] and the siliconvacancy (SiV) [13] in diamond proved to have an enormous potential for quantum optical spin-photon interface due to their narrow bandwidth emission [14]. The wide bandgap of the diamond, together with its weak spinorbit coupling and diluted nuclear-spin bath, gives to diamond color centers a remarkable spin coherence, and isotope engineering can enhance it further, due to the possibility of growing highly pure samples [15]. SiC also enjoys most of these properties, and benefits from mature production protocols on a large scale which are available for silicon, excellent nanofabrication quality [16], and capability of ion implantation without the side effects typical of the diamond, such as graphitization during irradiation [17]. However, diamond has some limitations in this respect in...

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A review on single photon sources in silicon carbide

Cited by 191 publications

References 170 publications

Optical Absorption and Emission Mechanisms of Single Defects in Hexagonal Boron Nitride

Optical Absorption and Emission Mechanisms of Single Defects in Hexagonal Boron Nitride

Advances in diamond nanofabrication for ultrasensitive devices

Silicon carbide color centers for quantum applications

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