Identification of Si-vacancy related room temperature qubits in 4H silicon carbide

TL;DR

This paper uses advanced calculations and measurements to definitively identify silicon vacancies in 4H silicon carbide as the source of room temperature qubits, clarifying their microscopic structure.

Contribution

It unambiguously confirms the isolated negatively charged silicon vacancy as the origin of SiC qubits using first principles calculations and ESR measurements.

Findings

Identified Si-vacancy related qubits as isolated negatively charged silicon vacancies.

Determined configurations enabling room temperature optical readout.

Clarified the microscopic structure of Si-vacancy qubits.

Abstract

Identification of microscopic configuration of point defects acting as quantum bits is a key step in the advance of quantum information processing and sensing. Among the numerous candidates, silicon vacancy related centers in silicon carbide (SiC) have shown remarkable properties owing to their particular spin-3/2 ground and excited states. Although, these centers were observed decades ago, still two competing models, the isolated negatively charged silicon vacancy and the complex of negatively charged silicon vacancy and neutral carbon vacancy [Phys. Rev. Lett.\ \textbf{115}, 247602 (2015)] are argued as an origin. By means of high precision first principles calculations and high resolution electron spin resonance measurements, we here unambiguously identify the Si-vacancy related qubits in hexagonal SiC as isolated negatively charged silicon vacancies. Moreover, we identify the Si-vacancy qubit configurations that provide room temperature optical readout.