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Room temperature optically detected magnetic resonance of single spins in GaN

Nature Materials volume 23, pages 512–518 (2024)Cite this article

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Abstract

High-contrast optically detected magnetic resonance is a valuable property for reading out the spin of isolated defect colour centres at room temperature. Spin-active single defect centres have been studied in wide bandgap materials including diamond, SiC and hexagonal boron nitride, each with associated advantages for applications. We report the discovery of optically detected magnetic resonance in two distinct species of bright, isolated defect centres hosted in GaN. In one group, we find negative optically detected magnetic resonance of a few percent associated with a metastable electronic state, whereas in the other, we find positive optically detected magnetic resonance of up to 30% associated with the ground and optically excited electronic states. We examine the spin symmetry axis of each defect species and establish coherent control over a single defect’s ground-state spin. Given the maturity of the semiconductor host, these results are promising for scalable and integrated quantum sensing applications.

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Fig. 1: Optical properties of GaN defects.
Fig. 2: ODMR.
Fig. 3: The cw-ODMR spectrum as a function of magnetic field.
Fig. 4: Spin-dependent optical dynamics.
Fig. 5: Rabi oscillation of a group II defect.

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Data availability

All data are available on eCommons: Digital Repository at Cornell (https://doi.org/10.7298/azf0-hc03). Source data are provided with this paper.

Code availability

All codes for analysing data in this study are available on eCommons: Digital Repository at Cornell (https://doi.org/10.7298/azf0-hc03).

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Acknowledgements

We thank L. van Deurzen, D. Jena and H. G. Xing for useful discussions and for supplying the GaN substrates. We thank B. McCullian, N. Mathur, A. D’Addario and J. Kuan for helpful discussions on the physics and microwave experiments. This work was supported by the Cornell Center for Materials Research (CCMR), a National Science Foundation (NSF) Materials Research Science and Engineering Center (DMR-1719875; J.L., Y.G., F.R. and G.D.F.). We also acknowledge support through the Cornell Engineering Sprout programme (J.L.). Preliminary work was supported by the NSF TAQS programme (ECCS-1839196; J.L., Y.G., F.R. and G.D.F.). This work was performed in part at the Cornell NanoScale Science & Technology Facility (CNF), a member of the National Nanotechnology Coordinated Infrastructure (NNCI), which is supported by the NSF (grant NNCI-2025233).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Physics, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, USA

    Jialun Luo

  2. School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, USA

    Yifei Geng & Farhan Rana

  3. School of Applied and Engineering Physics, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, USA

    Gregory D. Fuchs

  4. Kavli Institute at Cornell for Nanoscale Science, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, USA

    Gregory D. Fuchs

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  1. Jialun Luo
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Contributions

All authors conceived the experiment. J.L. and G.D.F. developed the experimental approach. J.L. and Y.G. prepared samples. J.L. made measurements. J.L. and G.D.F. analysed the experiment. J.L. and G.D.F. wrote the paper. All authors reviewed the paper.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Gregory D. Fuchs.

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The authors declare no competing interests.

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Nature Materials thanks Fedor Jelezko and the other, anonymous, reviewer(s) for their contribution to the peer review of this work.

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Supplementary information

Supplementary Information

Supplementary Figs. 1–9, Discussion and Tables 1 and 2.

Source data

Source Data Fig. 1

Source data for Fig. 1a (two-dimensional PL image), 1b (spectrum), 1c (g(2)) and 1d (magneto-PL for seven single defects).

Source Data Fig. 2

Source data for Fig. 2a,b (cw-ODMR traces for defect nos. 1 and 2) and 2c,d (cw-ODMR peak contrasts dependent on θ for defect nos. 1 and 2).

Source Data Fig. 3

Source data for Fig. 3a,b (cw-ODMR as a function of microwave drive frequency and magnetic field).

Source Data Fig. 4

Source data for Fig. 4b,d (pulsed ODMR traces for defect nos. 1 and 2) and 4c,e (time-resolved PL for defect nos. 1 and 2).

Source Data Fig. 5

Unnormalized source data for Fig. 5b–d (Rabi oscillations for the lower-frequency, intermediate-frequency and higher-frequency spin resonances of defect no. 6).

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Luo, J., Geng, Y., Rana, F. et al. Room temperature optically detected magnetic resonance of single spins in GaN. Nat. Mater. 23, 512–518 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41563-024-01803-5

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