Invited Speaker 23rd International Society of Magnetic Resonance Conference 2023

Room-temperature observation of strongly localized spin-pairs in silicon with µs long coherence time (#65)

Klaus Lips 1 2 3 , Jannik Möser 3 , Henna Popli 1 , Tania  Tennahewa 1 , Timor Biktagirov 4 , Jan Behrends 2 , Alexander Schnegg 5 , Wassim Akhtar 3 , Hans Malissa 1 , Christoph Boehme 1 , Gero G Schmidt 4 , Uwe Gerstmann 4
  1. Dep. of Physics and Astronomy, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah, USA
  2. Berlin Joint EPR Lab Dep. Physics, Freie Univwrsität Berlin (FUB), Berlin, Germany
  3. Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin für Materialien und Energie, Berlin, BERLIN, Germany
  4. Lehrstuhl für Theoretische Physik, Universität Paderborn, Paderborn, Germany
  5. EPR4Energy, Max-Planck-Institut für chemische Energiekonversion, Mülheim/Ruhr, Germany

Paramagnetic point defects in silicon provide qubits that could open up pathways towards silicon-technology based, low-cost, room-temperature (RT) quantum sensing. The silicon dangling bond (db) is a natural candidate, given its sub-nanometer localization and direct involvement in spin-dependent charge-carrier recombination, allowing for electrical spin readout. However, in crystalline silicon, strong db spin-coherence loss is observed at RT due to rapid free-electron trapping, which strongly limits quantum applications. Combining density-functional theory and multifrequency (100 MHz–263 GHz) pulsed electrically detected magnetic resonance spectroscopy, we show that dbs in a hydrogenated amorphous silicon matrix form metastable spin pairs in a well-defined quasi two-dimensional (2D) configuration upon electron capture. Although highly localized, these entangled spin pairs exhibit nearly vanishing intrinsic dipolar and exchange coupling. The formation of this specific topological configuration involves a > 0.3 eV energy relaxation of a trapped electron, stabilizing the pair. This extends RT spin coherence times into the microsecond range required for spin-based quantum sensing.