Engineering chlorine-based emitters in silicon carbide for telecom-band quantum technologies

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates the creation and optical characterization of chlorine-vacancy centers in silicon carbide emitting in telecom bands, highlighting their potential for scalable quantum networks.

Contribution

It introduces a new class of telecom-band color centers in silicon carbide created via chlorine ion implantation and annealing, with detailed optical properties.

Findings

ClV centers emit in O, S, and C telecom bands

Creation process confirmed chlorine origin of defects

Negligible ZPL reduction up to 30 K

Abstract

We report the experimental realization and optical characterization of chlorine-vacancy (ClV) color centers in 4H-SiC emitting in the fiber-optic telecom bands. These defects are created via chlorine ion implantation followed by high-temperature annealing. Photoluminescence spectroscopy reveals four distinct ClV configurations with zero-phonon lines (ZPLs) located in the O-band (1260 - 1360 nm), S-band (1460 - 1530 nm) and C-band (1530 - 1565 nm). Controlled implantation and annealing experiments confirm that the ClV centers originate specifically from chlorine incorporation into SiC and are not intrinsic to this material. We optimize the creation conditions for ClV ensembles and demonstrate negligible reduction of the ZPL intensity up to a temperature of 30 K. These results establish ClV defects as a new class of telecom-band color centers in a CMOS-compatible platform, offering strong potential for scalable quantum networks.