skip to main content
OSTI.GOV title logo U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Title: Design of defect spins in piezoelectric aluminum nitride for solid-state hybrid quantum technologies

Journal Article · · Scientific Reports
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1038/srep20803· OSTI ID:1239598
 [1];  [2];  [2]
  1. Univ. of Chicago, Chicago, IL (United States)
  2. Univ. of Chicago, Chicago, IL (United States); Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States)

Spin defects in wide-band gap semiconductors are promising systems for the realization of quantum bits, or qubits, in solid-state environments. To date, defect qubits have only been realized in materials with strong covalent bonds. Here, we introduce a strain-driven scheme to rationally design defect spins in functional ionic crystals, which may operate as potential qubits. In particular, using a combination of state-of-the-art ab-initio calculations based on hybrid density functional and many-body perturbation theory, we predicted that the negatively charged nitrogen vacancy center in piezoelectric aluminum nitride exhibits spin-triplet ground states under realistic uni- and bi-axial strain conditions; such states may be harnessed for the realization of qubits. As a result, the strain-driven strategy adopted here can be readily extended to a wide range of point defects in other wide-band gap semiconductors, paving the way to controlling the spin properties of defects in ionic systems for potential spintronic technologies.

Research Organization:
Argonne National Laboratory (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES)
Grant/Contract Number:
AC02-06CH11357
OSTI ID:
1239598
Journal Information:
Scientific Reports, Vol. 6, Issue 1; ISSN 2045-2322
Publisher:
Nature Publishing GroupCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 40 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

References (77)

Quantum Spintronics: Engineering and Manipulating Atom-Like Spins in Semiconductors journal March 2013
Scanning Confocal Optical Microscopy and Magnetic Resonance on Single Defect Centers journal June 1997
Observation of Coherent Oscillation of a Single Nuclear Spin and Realization of a Two-Qubit Conditional Quantum Gate journal September 2004
Heralded entanglement between solid-state qubits separated by three metres journal April 2013
Nanometre-scale thermometry in a living cell journal July 2013
Quantum computing with defects journal April 2010
Room temperature coherent control of defect spin qubits in silicon carbide journal November 2011
Coherent control of single spins in silicon carbide at room temperature journal December 2014
Isolated electron spins in silicon carbide with millisecond coherence times journal December 2014
Dynamic strain-mediated coupling of a single diamond spin to a mechanical resonator journal July 2014
Phonon cooling and lasing with nitrogen-vacancy centers in diamond journal August 2013
Piezoelectric aluminum nitride thin films for microelectromechanical systems journal November 2012
Aluminum nitride as a new material for chip-scale optomechanics and nonlinear optics journal September 2012
Nanomechanical coupling between microwave and optical photons journal September 2013
Defects at nitrogen site in electron-irradiated AlN journal June 2011
EPR and ODMR defect control in AlN bulk crystals journal December 2012
Determination of the Nitrogen Vacancy as a Shallow Compensating Center in GaN Doped with Divalent Metals journal January 2015
Native defect properties and p -type doping efficiency in group-IIA doped wurtzite AlN journal January 2008
The origin of 2.78 eV emission and yellow coloration in bulk AlN substrates journal December 2009
Identification of the V Al -O N defect complex in AlN single crystals journal August 2011
Characterization of bulk AlN with low oxygen content journal September 2004
Origins of optical absorption and emission lines in AlN journal September 2014
Generalized Gradient Approximation Made Simple journal October 1996
Toward reliable density functional methods without adjustable parameters: The PBE0 model journal April 1999
Self-consistent hybrid functional for condensed systems journal May 2014
Efficient pseudopotentials for plane-wave calculations journal January 1991
QUANTUM ESPRESSO: a modular and open-source software project for quantum simulations of materials journal September 2009
New Method for Calculating the One-Particle Green's Function with Application to the Electron-Gas Problem journal August 1965
First-Principles Theory of Quasiparticles: Calculation of Band Gaps in Semiconductors and Insulators journal September 1985
Improving accuracy and efficiency of calculations of photoemission spectra within the many-body perturbation theory journal February 2012
G W calculations using the spectral decomposition of the dielectric matrix: Verification, validation, and comparison of methods journal April 2013
Large Scale GW Calculations journal May 2015
Consistent set of band parameters for the group-III nitrides AlN, GaN, and InN journal February 2008
First-principles calculations for point defects in solids journal March 2014
Fully Ab Initio Finite-Size Corrections for Charged-Defect Supercell Calculations journal January 2009
Finite-size supercell correction schemes for charged defect calculations journal July 2012
A paramagnetic neutral V Al O N center in wurtzite AlN for spin qubit application journal August 2013
Spin-polarization of V Ga O N center in GaN and its application in spin qubit journal May 2012
Readout and control of a single nuclear spin with a metastable electron spin ancilla journal June 2013
Stability of deep donor and acceptor centers in GaN, AlN, and BN journal May 1997
DX -center formation in wurtzite and zinc-blende Al x Ga 1 x N journal January 1998
Hybrid functional study of Si and O donors in wurtzite AlN journal September 2011
n-type conductivity in sublimation-grown AlN bulk crystals journal July 2007
Towards rapid nanoscale measurement of strain in III-nitride heterostructures journal December 2013
Ab initio supercell calculations on nitrogen-vacancy center in diamond: Electronic structure and hyperfine tensors journal April 2008
Mechanism for optical initialization of spin in NV center in diamond journal July 2012
State-selective intersystem crossing in nitrogen-vacancy centers journal April 2015
Coherent control of a nitrogen-vacancy center spin ensemble with a diamond mechanical resonator journal January 2015
Nanomechanical readout of a single spin journal January 2014
Determination of the anisotropic dielectric function for wurtzite AlN and GaN by spectroscopic ellipsometry journal July 2003
Epitaxial growth of aluminum nitride layers on Si(111) at high temperature and for different thicknesses journal January 1997
Infrared lattice vibration of vapour-grown AlN journal November 1967
All-electron magnetic response with pseudopotentials: NMR chemical shifts journal May 2001
Quasiparticle calculations of band offsets at AlN–GaN interfaces journal September 2002
Ab initio supercell calculations on nitrogen-vacancy center in diamond: its electronic structure and hyperfine tensors text January 2008
Quantum computing with defects text January 2010
First-principles investigation of hyperfine interactions for nuclear spin entanglement in photo-excited fullerenes text January 2012
Readout and control of a single nuclear spin with a meta-stable electron spin ancilla text January 2013
Phonon Cooling and Lasing with Nitrogen-Vacancy Centers in Diamond text January 2013
Electrically and mechanically tunable electron spins in silicon carbide color centers text January 2013
Dynamic strain-mediated coupling of a single diamond spin to a mechanical resonator text January 2014
Coherent control of single spins in silicon carbide at room temperature text January 2014
Coherent Control of a Nitrogen-Vacancy Center Spin Ensemble with a Diamond Mechanical Resonator preprint January 2014
Self-consistent hybrid functional for condensed systems text January 2015
All-electron magnetic response with pseudopotentials: NMR chemical shifts text January 2001
Observation of coherent oscillation of a single nuclear spin and realization of a two-qubit conditional quantum gate text January 2004
Quasiparticle band structure of AlN and GaN journal October 1993
Electronic structure of the N- V center in diamond: Theory journal May 1996
Pseudopotential hyperfine calculations through perturbative core-level polarization journal July 2007
First-principles investigation of hyperfine interactions for nuclear spin entanglement in photoexcited fullerenes journal March 2012
Effects of strain on the band structure of group-III nitrides journal September 2014
Defect-Induced Intrinsic Magnetism in Wide-Gap III Nitrides journal March 2008
Theory of Spin-Conserving Excitation of the N V Center in Diamond journal October 2009
Electrically and Mechanically Tunable Electron Spins in Silicon Carbide Color Centers journal May 2014
First-Principles Approach to Insulators in Finite Electric Fields journal August 2002
Ab initio Molecular Dynamics in a Finite Homogeneous Electric Field journal September 2002
Stabilization Mechanism of Vacancies in Group-III Nitrides: Exchange Splitting and Electron Transfer journal August 2010

Cited By (21)

Ultrawide-Bandgap Semiconductors: Research Opportunities and Challenges journal December 2017
Quantum decoherence dynamics of divacancy spins in silicon carbide journal September 2016
Ab initio molecular dynamics simulations of AlN responding to low energy particle radiation journal January 2018
Space charge control of point defect spin states in AlN journal July 2019
Investigation of room temperature ferromagnetism in transition metal doped BiFeO 3 journal July 2019
First principles predictions of magneto-optical data for semiconductor point defect identification: the case of divacancy defects in 4H–SiC journal February 2018
Pulsed Photoelectric Coherent Manipulation and Detection of N V Center Spins in Diamond journal April 2017
Carrier recombination mechanism at defects in wide band gap two-dimensional materials from first principles journal August 2019
Nonempirical range-separated hybrid functionals for solids and molecules journal June 2016
First-principles engineering of charged defects for two-dimensional quantum technologies journal December 2017
Designing defect-based qubit candidates in wide-gap binary semiconductors for solid-state quantum technologies journal December 2017
Dielectric-dependent hybrid functionals for heterogeneous materials journal July 2019
Phase stability, mechanical and optoelectronic properties of two novel phases of AlN journal June 2017
Quantum decoherence dynamics of divacancy spins in silicon carbide text January 2016
Designing defect-based qubit candidates in wide-gap binary semiconductors for solid-state quantum technologies text January 2017
First-principles Engineering of Charged Defects for Two-dimensional Quantum Technologies text January 2017
Dielectric dependent hybrid functionals for heterogeneous materials text January 2019
A Finite-Field Approach for GW Calculations beyond the Random Phase Approximation journal November 2018
Quantum simulations of materials on near-term quantum computers journal July 2020
Spin-spin interactions in solids from mixed all-electron and pseudopotential calculations $-$ a path to screening materials for spin qubits preprint January 2021
Quantum Embedding Theory for Strongly-correlated States in Materials text January 2021

Similar Records

Aberration corrected scanning transmission electron microscopy and electron energy loss spectroscopy studies of epitaxial Fe/MgO/(001)Ge heterostructures
Journal Article · Sat Jan 01 00:00:00 EST 2011 · Journal of Materials Science · OSTI ID:1239598

Defects in SiC for Quantum Computing
Journal Article · Mon Jul 15 00:00:00 EDT 2019 · MRS Advances · OSTI ID:1239598

DMRG on Top of Plane-Wave Kohn–Sham Orbitals: A Case Study of Defected Boron Nitride
Journal Article · Wed Jan 13 00:00:00 EST 2021 · Journal of Chemical Theory and Computation · OSTI ID:1239598