Electronic structure of silicon vacancy centers in 4H-SiC

Ö. O. Soykal, Pratibha Dev, Sophia E. Economou

Published 2015-07-17Version 1

Defects in silicon carbide are of intense and increasing interest for quantum-based applications due to this material's properties and technological maturity. We calculate the multi-particle symmetry adapted wave functions of the silicon vacancy defect in silicon carbide via use of group theory and density functional theory and find the effects of spin-orbit and spin-spin interactions on these states. Based on these results we identify the mechanism that polarizes the spin under laser driving, demonstrate that the structure allows for electric field or strain sensing, and find the value of the ground-state zero field splitting to be 76.6 MHz, in good agreement with experiment. Moreover, we present two distinct protocols of a spin-photon interface based on this defect. Our results pave the way toward novel quantum information and quantum metrology applications with silicon carbide.