Coherent mechanical driving of spin ensembles in 4H-SiC using a gaussian surface acoustic wave resonator

ORAL

Abstract

Silicon carbide (SiC) has recently emerged as a promising host material for spin qubits. In particular, divacancies and silicon vacancies in 4H-SiC have been shown to have similar optical and spin properties to the nitrogen vacancy center in diamond. SiC also provides wafer-scale growth and mature fabrication processes, as well as being a piezoelectric material allowing for design of electromechanical devices. Here we demonstrate design, fabrication and characterization of a gaussian surface acoustic wave resonator (SAW) using a sputtered AlN epilayer on top of 4H-SiC, which is used to drive strain-induced coherent mechanical control of divacancy spin ensembles near the surface. This enables demonstration of Autler-Townes splitting and coherent Rabi driving on all c-axis (hh, kk, and PL6) defects. We further utilize the Autler-Townes effect to map the gaussian SAW mode shape, measuring a transverse beam waist of only 40 µm full width at half maximum (12 µm wavelength). This work provides the basis for further spin-mechanical hybrid systems, and in particular toward applications such as quantum communication and transduction.

*This work was supported by AFOSR, DOE, NSF GRFP and UChicago MRSEC.

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Presenters

  • Gary Wolfowicz

    • Institute for Molecular Engineering, University of Chicago

Authors

  • Gary Wolfowicz

    • Institute for Molecular Engineering, University of Chicago

  • Samuel Whiteley

    • Univ of Chicago
    • Institute for Molecular Engineering, University of Chicago
    • University of Chicago

  • Christopher Anderson

    • Institute for Molecular Engineering, University of Chicago

  • Alexandre Bourassa

    • Institute for Molecular Engineering, University of Chicago

  • Gerwin Koolstra

    • Institute for Molecular Engineering, University of Chicago
    • Physics, Univ of Chicago

  • Kevin Satzinger

    • Institute for Molecular Engineering, University of Chicago
    • Dept. of Physics, UC Santa Barbara; IME, University of Chicago
    • UC Santa Barbara; University of Chicago

  • F. Joseph Heremans

    • Materials Science Division, Argonne National Laboratory

  • David Schuster

    • Univ of Chicago
    • Physics, Univ of Chicago
    • James Franck Institute and Department of Physics, University of Chicago
    • University of Chciago
    • Physics, University of Chicago
    • Institute for Molecular Engineering, University of Chicago
    • University of Chicago
    • James Franck Institute, University of Chicago

  • Andrew Cleland

    • Institute for Molecular Engineering, University of Chicago
    • Univ of Chicago
    • University of Chicago

  • David Awschalom

    • Univ of Chicago
    • Institute for Molecular Engineering, University of Chicago
    • University of Chicago