Correlating dynamic strain and photoluminescence of solid-state defects with stroboscopic x-ray diffraction microscopy

Abstract

Control of local lattice perturbations near optically-active defects in semiconductors is a key step to harnessing the potential of solid-state qubits for quantum information science and nanoscale sensing. We report the development of a stroboscopic scanning X-ray diffraction microscopy approach for real-space imaging of dynamic strain used in correlation with microscopic photoluminescence measurements. We demonstrate this technique in 4H-SiC, which hosts long-lifetime room temperature vacancy spin defects. Using nano-focused X-ray photon pulses synchronized to a surface acoustic wave launcher, we achieve an effective time resolution of 100 ps at a 25 nm spatial resolution to map micro-radian dynamic lattice curvatures. The acoustically induced lattice distortions near an engineered scattering structure are correlated with enhanced photoluminescence responses of optically-active SiC quantum defects driven by local piezoelectric effects. These results demonstrate a unique route for directly imaging local strain in nanomechanical structures and quantifying dynamic structure-function relationships in materials under realistic operating conditions.

References in corpus (21)

• Quantum Computing
• Quantum technologies with hybrid systems
• Quantum computing with defects
• Coherent control of single spins in silicon carbide at room temperature
• Propagating phonons coupled to an artificial atom
• Isolated electron spins in silicon carbide with millisecond-coherence times
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• Strong mechanical driving of a single electron spin
• High resolution three dimensional structural microscopy by single angle Bragg ptychography
• Electrical Tuning of Single Nitrogen-Vacancy Center Optical Transitions Enhanced by Photoinduced Fields
• Selective Purcell enhancement of two closely linked zero-phonon transitions of a silicon carbide color center
• Silicon Carbide Photonic Crystal Cavities with Integrated Color Centers
• Fourier synthesis of radio frequency nanomechanical pulses with different shapes
• Stark Tuning and Electrical Charge State Control of Single Divacancies in Silicon Carbide
• Continuous dynamical decoupling of a single diamond nitrogen-vacancy center spin with a mechanical resonator
• Orbital state manipulation of a diamond nitrogen-vacancy center using a mechanical resonator
• Electrometry by optical charge conversion of deep defects in 4H-SiC

Cited by in corpus (5)

• Room temperature coherent manipulation of single-spin qubits in silicon carbide with a high readout contrast
• Microscopic imaging of elastic deformation in diamond via in-situ stress tensor sensors
• Strain modulation of Si vacancy emission from SiC micro- and nanoparticles
• Theory of Field-Angle-Resolved Magnetoacoustic Resonance in Spin-Triplet Systems for Application to Nitrogen-Vacancy Centers in Diamond
• Theory of Spin-Acoustic Resonance for Spin-3/2 Si Vacancy with $C_{3v}$ Site Symmetry in Silicon Carbide