Electromagnetically induced transparency in inhomogeneously broadened divacancy defect ensembles in SiC

Electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) is a phenomenon that can provide strong and robust interfacing between optical signals and quantum coherence of electronic spins. In its archetypical form, mainly explored with atomic media, it uses a (near-)homogeneous ensemble of three-level systems,...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of applied physics 2022-03, Vol.131 (9)
Main Authors: Zwier, Olger V., Bosma, Tom, Gilardoni, Carmem M., Yang, Xu, Onur, Alexander R., Ohshima, Takeshi, Son, Nguyen T., van der Wal, Caspar H.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Applied physics
Coherence
Color centers
Divacancies
Optical communication
Quantum phenomena
Silicon carbide
Visibility
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) is a phenomenon that can provide strong and robust interfacing between optical signals and quantum coherence of electronic spins. In its archetypical form, mainly explored with atomic media, it uses a (near-)homogeneous ensemble of three-level systems, in which two low-energy spin-1/2 levels are coupled to a common optically excited state. We investigate the implementation of EIT with c-axis divacancy color centers in silicon carbide. While this material has attractive properties for quantum device technologies with near-IR optics, implementing EIT is complicated by the inhomogeneous broadening of the optical transitions throughout the ensemble and the presence of multiple ground-state levels. These may lead to darkening of the ensemble upon resonant optical excitation. Here, we show that EIT can be established with high visibility also in this material platform upon careful design of the measurement geometry. Comparison of our experimental results with a model based on the Lindblad equations indicates that we can create coherences between different sets of two levels all-optically in these systems, with potential impact for RF-free quantum sensing applications. Our work provides an understanding of EIT in multi-level systems with significant inhomogeneities, and our considerations are valid for a wide array of defects in semiconductors.
ISSN:0021-8979
1089-7550
1089-7550
DOI:10.1063/5.0077112