Extended spin relaxation times of optically addressed vanadium defects in silicon carbide at telecommunication frequencies
Jonghoon Ahn, Christina Wicker, Nolan Bitner, Michael T. Solomon, Benedikt Tissot, Guido Burkard, Alan Dibos, Jiefei Zhang, F. Joseph Heremans, D. D. Awschalom
Abstract
Spin defects embedded in a scalable material platform with bright telecom emission are promising candidates for quantum communication technologies. ${V}^{4+}$ in SiC fulfills these criteria, but its potential is limited by the lack of understanding of its spin relaxation mechanisms. This study employs all-optical measurements to reveal that the site-dependent spin ${T}_{1}$ values can exceed 20 seconds and identifies the mechanism of the spin relaxation processes. These insights lead to a proposal to enable qubit operations at higher temperatures, significantly reducing the infrastructure requirements and paving the way for practical realization of quantum technologies based on ${V}^{4+}$ in SiC.