Silicon vacancy center in 4H-SiC: Electronic structure and spin-photon interfaces

Defects in silicon carbide are of intense and increasing interest for quantum-based applications due to this material's properties and technological maturity. We calculate the multiparticle symmetry-adapted wave functions of the negatively charged silicon vacancy defect in hexagonal silicon carbide via use of group theory and density functional theory and find the effects of spin-orbit and spin-spin interactions on these states. Although we focused on V-Si in 4H-SiC because of its unique fine structure due to the odd number of active electrons, our methods can be easily applied to other defect centers of different polytypes, especially to the 6H-SiC. Based on these results, we identify the mechanism that polarizes the spin under optical drive, obtain the ordering of its dark doublet states, point out a path for electric field or strain sensing, and find the theoretical value of its ground-state zero-field splitting to be 68 MHz, in good agreement with experiment. Moreover, we present two distinct protocols of a spin-photon interface based on this defect. Our results pave the way toward quantum information and quantum metrology applications with silicon carbide.