Identification and all-optical dynamic nuclear polarization of Si-vacancy related room temperature qubits in SiC

Point defect quantum bits (qubits) are very promising platform for quantum information processing (QIP) and nanoscale sensor applications. Among the numerous qubit candidates, silicon-vacancy related defects in silicon carbide (SiC) already shown favorable spin properties, demonstrated even at single defect level at room temperature. Furthermore, due to the small zero-field-splitting, O(10 MHz), of the spin-3/2 sublevels of these centers, they are potentially interesting centers for magnetic field angle independent all-optical dynamic nuclear polarization (ODNP) applications.
From the application point of view, it is of high importance to identify the microscopic configurations of the silicon vacancy related qubits in SiC, therefore here we first show by means of ab initio simulations that they can be identified as isolated negatively changed silicon vacancies[1]. Utilizing a recently developed model for all-optical dynamic nuclear polarization and ab initio hyperfine field calculations, we investigate the potential of silicon vacancy qubits in different all-optical DNP based applications.
[1] Phys. Rev. B 96, 161114(R) (2017)