Integrating Spin Defects in Solids

Spin defects in wide bandgap semiconductors, such as nitrogen-vacancy (NV) center in diamond and silicon vacancy in silicon carbide (SiC), are regarded as promising candidates for spin qubits and quantum sensors. Depending on the purpose/applications, it is necessary to form single to large amounts of spin defects. Particle irradiation is a powerful method to create such spin defects in wide bandgap semiconductors. We demonstrated the creation of NV pairs and multiple NVs by the implantation of molecular ions which contain N atoms. Four NVs centers close to each other can be obtained using phthalocyanine (C₃₂N₈H₁₈) molecular ion implantation. In addition, it is also important to create spin defects in certain locations. Thus, we can obtain the information on temperature and current -induced magnetic field in SiC devices using silicon vacancy introduced in SiC devices. However, if silicon vacancies are created in whole areas of SiC devices, the electrical characteristics of SiC devices are degraded. For this purpose, we need to create silicon vacancies in certain locations that we want to measure. Particle beam writing (PBW) is known as a technique which can create defects in certain locations using focused ion beams with a diameter of 1 micrometer. We demonstrated that silicon vacancies were locally formed in SiC devices, and the local temperature and current-induced magnetic field in the SiC devices were measured.