Identification and tunable optical coherent control of transition-metal spins in silicon carbide

Color centers in wide-bandgap semiconductors are attractive systems for quantum technologies since they can combine long-coherent electronic spin and bright optical properties. Several suitable centers have been identified, most famously the nitrogen-vacancy defect in diamond. However, integration in communication technology is hindered by the fact that their optical transitions lie outside telecom wavelength bands. Several transition-metal impurities in silicon carbide do emit at and near telecom wavelengths, but knowledge about their spin and optical properties is incomplete. We present all-optical identification and coherent control of molybdenum-impurity spins in silicon carbide with transitions at near-infrared wavelengths. Our results identify spin S= 1/2 for both the electronic ground and excited state, with highly anisotropic spin properties that we apply for implementing optical control of ground-state spin coherence. Our results show optical lifetimes of similar to 60 ns and inhomogeneous spin dephasing times of similar to 0.3 mu S, establishing relevance for quantum spin-photon interfacing.Funding Agencies|ERC Starting Grant [279931]; Zernike Institute BIS program; Swedish Research Council [VR 2016-04068, VR 2016-05362]; Carl-Trygger Stiftelse for Vetenskaplig Forskning grant [CTS 15:339]