Laser Writing of Scalable Single Color Centers in Silicon Carbide.

Single photon emitters in silicon carbide (SiC) are attracting attention as quantum photonic systems ( Awschalom et al. Nat. Photonics 2018 , 12 , 516 - 527 ; Atatüre et al. Nat. Rev. Mater. 2018 , 3 , 38 - 51 ). However, to achieve scalable devices, it is essential to generate single photon emitters at desired locations on demand. Here we report the controlled creation of single silicon vacancy (V) centers in 4H-SiC using laser writing without any postannealing process. Due to the aberration correction in the writing apparatus and the nonannealing process, we generate single V centers with yields up to 30%, located within about 80 nm of the desired position in the transverse plane. We also investigated the photophysics of the laser writing V centers and concluded that there are about 16 photons involved in the laser writing V center process. Our results represent a powerful tool in the fabrication of single V centers in SiC for quantum technologies and provide further insights into laser writing defects in dielectric materials.