No Arabic abstract
Hybrid spin-mechanical systems are a promising platform for future quantum technologies. Usually they require application of additional microwave fields to project integer spin to a readable state. We develop a theory of optically detected spin-mechanical resonance associated with half-integer spin defects in silicon carbide (SiC) membranes. It occurs when a spin resonance frequency matches a resonance frequency of a mechanical mode, resulting in a shortening of the spin relaxation time through resonantly enhanced spin-phonon coupling. The effect can be detected as an abrupt reduction of the photoluminescence intensity under optical pumping without application of microwave fields. We propose all-optical protocols based on such spin-mechanical resonance to detect external magnetic fields and mass with ultra-high sensitivity. We also discuss room-temperature nonlinear effects under strong optical pumping, including spin-mediated cooling and heating of mechanical modes. Our approach suggests a new concept for quantum sensing using spin-optomechanics.
We demonstrate that the spin of optically addressable point defects can be coherently driven with AC electric fields. Based on magnetic-dipole forbidden spin transitions, this scheme enables spatially confined spin control, the imaging of high-frequency electric fields, and the characterization of defect spin multiplicity. While we control defects in SiC, these methods apply to spin systems in many semiconductors, including the nitrogen-vacancy center in diamond. Electrically driven spin resonance offers a viable route towards scalable quantum control of electron spins in a dense array.
Defect spins in silicon carbide have become promising platforms with respect to quantum information processing and quantum sensing. Indeed, the optically detected magnetic resonance (ODMR) of defect spins is the cornerstone of the applications. In this work, we systematically investigate the contrast and linewidth of laser-and microwave power-dependent ODMR with respect to ensemble-divacancy spins in silicon carbide at room temperature. The results suggest that magnetic field sensing sensitivity can be improved by a factor of 10 for the optimized laser and microwave power range. The experiment will be useful for the applications of silicon carbide defects in quantum information processing and ODMR-dependent quantum sensing.
We discuss the fine structure and spin dynamics of spin-3/2 centers associated with silicon vacancies in silicon carbide. The centers have optically addressable spin states which makes them highly promising for quantum technologies. The fine structure of the spin centers turns out to be highly sensitive to mechanical pressure, external magnetic and electric fields, temperature variation, etc., which can be utilized for efficient room-temperature sensing, particularly by purely optical means or through the optically detected magnetic resonance. We discuss the experimental achievements in magnetometry and thermometry based on the spin state mixing at level anticrossings in an external magnetic field and the underlying microscopic mechanisms. We also discuss spin fluctuations in an ensemble of vacancies caused by interaction with environment.
In this study, we use the transient thermal grating optical technique textemdash a non-contact, laser-based thermal metrology technique with intrinsically high accuracy textemdash to investigate room-temperature phonon-mediated thermal transport in two nanoporous holey silicon membranes with limiting dimensions of 100 nm and 250 nm respectively. We compare the experimental results to ab initio calculations of phonon-mediated thermal transport according to the phonon Boltzmann transport equation (BTE) using two different computational techniques. We find that the calculations conducted within the Casimir framework, i.e. based on the BTE with the bulk phonon dispersion and diffuse scattering from surfaces, are in quantitative agreement with the experimental data, and thus conclude that this framework is adequate for describing phonon-mediated thermal transport through holey silicon membranes with feature sizes on the order of 100 nm.
We report on acoustically driven spin resonances in atomic-scale centers in silicon carbide at room temperature. Specifically, we use a surface acoustic wave cavity to selectively address spin transitions with magnetic quantum number differences of $pm$1 and $pm$2 in the absence of external microwave electromagnetic fields. These spin-acoustic resonances reveal a non-trivial dependence on the static magnetic field orientation, which is attributed to the intrinsic symmetry of the acoustic fields combined with the peculiar properties of a half-integer spin system. We develop a microscopic model of the spin-acoustic interaction, which describes our experimental data without fitting parameters. Furthermore, we predict that traveling surface waves lead to a chiral spin-acoustic resonance, which changes upon magnetic field inversion. These results establish silicon carbide as a highly-promising hybrid platform for on-chip spin-optomechanical quantum control enabling engineered interactions at room temperature.