Optical thermometry based on level anticrossing in silicon carbide

TL;DR

This paper introduces an all-optical thermometry method using silicon vacancy centers in silicon carbide, exploiting a giant thermal shift in excited-state zero-field splitting for sensitive temperature detection.

Contribution

It demonstrates a novel optical thermometry technique based on level anticrossing in silicon carbide, achieving high sensitivity without radiofrequency fields.

Findings

Thermal shift of 2.1 MHz/K in excited-state zero-field splitting.

Temperature sensitivity of 100 mK/Hz^{1/2} in a small detection volume.

Potential for integrated magnetic field and temperature sensing.

Abstract

We report a giant thermal shift of $2.1 \,$MHz/K related to the excited-state zero-field splitting in the silicon vacancy centers in 4H silicon carbide. It is obtained from the indirect observation of the optically detected magnetic resonance in the excited state using the ground state as an ancilla. Alternatively, relative variations of the zero-field splitting for small temperature differences can be detected without application of radiofrequency fields, by simply monitoring the photoluminescence intensity in the vicinity of the level anticrossing. This effect results in an all-optical thermometry technique with temperature sensitivity of $100 \,$mK/Hz$^{1/2}$ for a detection volume of approximately $10^{-6} \,$mm$^{3}$. In contrast, the zero-field splitting in the ground state does not reveal detectable temperature shift. Using these properties, an integrated magnetic field and temperature sensor can be implemented on the same center.