Colour centres in silicon carbide emerge as a promising semiconductor quantum technology platform with excellent spin-optical coherences. However, recent efforts towards maximising the photonic efficiency via integration into nanophotonic structures proved to be challenging due to reduced spectral stabilities. Here, we provide a large-scale systematic investigation on silicon vacancy centres in thin silicon carbide membranes with thicknesses down to 0.25þinspace$\mu$m. Our membrane fabrication process involves a combination of chemical mechanical polishing, reactive ion etching, and subsequent annealing. This leads to highly reproducible membranes with roughness values of 3--4þinspace\AA, as well as negligible surface fluorescence. We find that silicon vacancy centres show close-to lifetime limited optical linewidths with almost no signs of spectral wandering down to membrane thicknesses of ˜0.7þinspace$\mu$m. For silicon vacancy centres in thinner membranes down to 0.25þinspace$\mu$m, we observe spectral wandering, however, optical linewidths remain below 200þinspaceMHz, which is compatible with spin-selective excitation schemes. Our work clearly shows that silicon vacancy centres can be integrated into sub-micron silicon carbide membranes, which opens the avenue towards obtaining the necessary improvements in photon extraction efficiency based on nanophotonic structuring.
%0 Journal Article
%1 Heiler2024
%A Heiler, Jonah
%A Körber, Jonathan
%A Hesselmeier, Erik
%A Kuna, Pierre
%A Stöhr, Rainer
%A Fuchs, Philipp
%A Ghezellou, Misagh
%A Ul-Hassan, Jawad
%A Knolle, Wolfgang
%A Becher, Christoph
%A Kaiser, Florian
%A Wrachtrup, Jörg
%D 2024
%J npj Quantum Materials
%K pi3 wrachtrup
%N 1
%P 34
%R 10.1038/s41535-024-00644-4
%T Spectral stability of V2 centres in sub-micron 4H-SiC membranes
%U https://doi.org/10.1038/s41535-024-00644-4
%V 9
%X Colour centres in silicon carbide emerge as a promising semiconductor quantum technology platform with excellent spin-optical coherences. However, recent efforts towards maximising the photonic efficiency via integration into nanophotonic structures proved to be challenging due to reduced spectral stabilities. Here, we provide a large-scale systematic investigation on silicon vacancy centres in thin silicon carbide membranes with thicknesses down to 0.25þinspace$\mu$m. Our membrane fabrication process involves a combination of chemical mechanical polishing, reactive ion etching, and subsequent annealing. This leads to highly reproducible membranes with roughness values of 3--4þinspace\AA, as well as negligible surface fluorescence. We find that silicon vacancy centres show close-to lifetime limited optical linewidths with almost no signs of spectral wandering down to membrane thicknesses of ˜0.7þinspace$\mu$m. For silicon vacancy centres in thinner membranes down to 0.25þinspace$\mu$m, we observe spectral wandering, however, optical linewidths remain below 200þinspaceMHz, which is compatible with spin-selective excitation schemes. Our work clearly shows that silicon vacancy centres can be integrated into sub-micron silicon carbide membranes, which opens the avenue towards obtaining the necessary improvements in photon extraction efficiency based on nanophotonic structuring.
@article{Heiler2024,
abstract = {Colour centres in silicon carbide emerge as a promising semiconductor quantum technology platform with excellent spin-optical coherences. However, recent efforts towards maximising the photonic efficiency via integration into nanophotonic structures proved to be challenging due to reduced spectral stabilities. Here, we provide a large-scale systematic investigation on silicon vacancy centres in thin silicon carbide membranes with thicknesses down to 0.25{\thinspace}$\mu$m. Our membrane fabrication process involves a combination of chemical mechanical polishing, reactive ion etching, and subsequent annealing. This leads to highly reproducible membranes with roughness values of 3--4{\thinspace}{\AA}, as well as negligible surface fluorescence. We find that silicon vacancy centres show close-to lifetime limited optical linewidths with almost no signs of spectral wandering down to membrane thicknesses of {\textasciitilde}0.7{\thinspace}$\mu$m. For silicon vacancy centres in thinner membranes down to 0.25{\thinspace}$\mu$m, we observe spectral wandering, however, optical linewidths remain below 200{\thinspace}MHz, which is compatible with spin-selective excitation schemes. Our work clearly shows that silicon vacancy centres can be integrated into sub-micron silicon carbide membranes, which opens the avenue towards obtaining the necessary improvements in photon extraction efficiency based on nanophotonic structuring.},
added-at = {2024-05-29T09:57:33.000+0200},
author = {Heiler, Jonah and K{\"o}rber, Jonathan and Hesselmeier, Erik and Kuna, Pierre and St{\"o}hr, Rainer and Fuchs, Philipp and Ghezellou, Misagh and Ul-Hassan, Jawad and Knolle, Wolfgang and Becher, Christoph and Kaiser, Florian and Wrachtrup, J{\"o}rg},
biburl = {https://puma.ub.uni-stuttgart.de/bibtex/28ad9239a3b32f4049b44ecfdda12731a/shirschmann},
day = 04,
doi = {10.1038/s41535-024-00644-4},
interhash = {ad4bd8ff0c7f20ea7799ed07d956764c},
intrahash = {8ad9239a3b32f4049b44ecfdda12731a},
issn = {2397-4648},
journal = {npj Quantum Materials},
keywords = {pi3 wrachtrup},
month = apr,
number = 1,
pages = 34,
timestamp = {2024-05-29T09:57:52.000+0200},
title = {Spectral stability of V2 centres in sub-micron 4H-SiC membranes},
url = {https://doi.org/10.1038/s41535-024-00644-4},
volume = 9,
year = 2024
}
