Dipolar spin relaxation of divacancy qubits in silicon carbide

TL;DR

This study provides a detailed theoretical analysis of dipolar spin relaxation in divacancy qubits in silicon carbide, revealing how environmental spins and magnetic fields influence their relaxation times and coherence properties.

Contribution

It offers the first comprehensive theoretical model of dipolar spin relaxation mechanisms in divacancy qubits in silicon carbide, including analytical expressions and dependence on defect concentration and magnetic field.

Findings

Dipolar spin relaxation significantly limits coherence times in 4H-SiC.

Resonant drops in T$_1$ occur at specific magnetic field values due to coupling with nuclear and electron spins.

Analytical expressions relate T$_1$ to defect concentration and magnetic field.

Abstract

Divacancy spins in silicon carbide implement qubits with outstanding characteristics and capabilities in an industrial semiconductor host. On the other hand, there are still numerous open questions about the physics of divacancy point defects, for instance, spin relaxation has not been thoroughly studied yet. Here, we carry out a theoretical study on environmental spin induced spin relaxation processes of divacancy qubits in 4H-SiC. We reveal all the relevant magnetic field values where the longitudinal spin relaxation time T$_1$ drops resonantly due to the coupling to either nuclear spins or electron spins. We quantitatively analyze the dependence of the T$_1$ time on the concentration of point defect spins and the applied magnetic field in the most relevant cases and provide an analytical expression. We demonstrate that dipolar spin relaxation plays a significant role both in as-grown and ion implanted samples and it often limits the coherence time in 4H-SiC.