Room-temperature near-infrared silicon carbide nanocrystalline emitters based on optically aligned spin defects

Abstract

Bulk silicon carbide (SiC) is a very promising material system for bio-applications and quantum sensing. However, its optical activity lies beyond the near infrared spectral window for in-vivo imaging and fiber communications due to a large forbidden energy gap. Here, we report the fabrication of SiC nanocrystals and isolation of different nanocrystal fractions ranged from 600 nm down to 60 nm in size. The structural analysis reveals further fragmentation of the smallest nanocrystals into ca. 10-nm-size clusters of high crystalline quality, separated by amorphization areas. We use neutron irradiation to create silicon vacancies, demonstrating near infrared photoluminescence. Finally, we detect, for the first time, room-temperature spin resonances of these silicon vacancies hosted in SiC nanocrystals. This opens intriguing perspectives to use them not only as in-vivo luminescent markers, but also as magnetic field and temperature sensors, allowing for monitoring various physical, chemical and biological processes.

arXiv comment5 pages, 4 figures

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• High precision vector magnetometry with uniaxial quantum centers in silicon carbide
• Spin and optical properties of silicon vacancies in silicon carbide (a review)
• Influence of irradiation on defect spin coherence in silicon carbide
• Self-protected nanoscale thermometry based on spin defects in silicon carbide
• Local vibrational modes of Si vacancy spin qubits in SiC
• Strain modulation of Si vacancy emission from SiC micro- and nanoparticles
• Hyperbolic Metamaterial Resonator-Antenna Scheme for Large, Broadband Emission Enhancement and Single Photon Collection
• Electron nuclear interactions and electronic structure of spin 3/2 color centers in silicon carbide: A high-field pulse EPR and ENDOR study
• Ultralong-term high-density data storage with atomic defects in SiC
• Nuclear spin polarization in silicon carbide at room temperature in the Earth's magnetic field