Electrical Charge State Manipulation of Single Silicon Vacancies in a Silicon Carbide Quantum Optoelectronic Device

We investigate charge state manipulation of silicon vacancies in silicon carbide, which has recently shown a unique combination of long spin coherence time and ultrastable spin-selective optical transitions. In particular, we demonstrate charge state switching through the bias applied to the color center in an integrated silicon carbide optoelectronic device. We show that the electronic environment defined by the doping profile and the distribution of other defects in the device plays a key role for charge state control. Our experimental results and numerical modeling evidence that control of these complex interactions can, under certain conditions, enhance the photon emission rate. These findings open the way for deterministic control over the charge state of spin-active color centers for quantum technology and provide novel techniques for monitoring doping profilesand voltage sensing in microscopic devices