Strain Engineering for Transition Metal Defects in SiC

TL;DR

This paper investigates how applying strain to vanadium defects in silicon carbide can modify their electronic and optical properties, enabling better control for quantum technology applications.

Contribution

It provides a theoretical analysis of strain effects on the electronic structure and optical transitions of TM defects in SiC, highlighting new avenues for quantum state control.

Findings

Strain can tune the g-tensor and electronic selection rules.

Strain influences hyperfine interactions in TM defects.

Proposes methods for optical initialization of quantum states.

Abstract

Transition metal (TM) defects in silicon carbide (SiC) are a promising platform for applications in quantum technology as some of these defects, e.g. vanadium (V), allow for optical emission in one of the telecom bands. For other defects it was shown that straining the crystal can lead to beneficial effects regarding the emission properties. Motivated by this, we theoretically study the main effects of strain on the electronic level structure and optical electric-dipole transitions of the V defect in SiC. In particular we show how strain can be used to engineer the g-tensor, electronic selection rules, and the hyperfine interaction. Based on these insights we discuss optical Lambda systems and a path forward to initializing the quantum state of strained TM defects in SiC.