Optically detected spin-mechanical resonance in silicon carbide membranes

Hybrid spin-mechanical systems are a promising platform for future quantum technologies. Usually they require application of additional microwave fields to project integer spin to a readable state. We develop a theory of optically detected spin-mechanical resonance associated with half-integer spin defects in silicon carbide (SiC) membranes. It occurs when a spin resonance frequency matches a resonance frequency of a mechanical mode, resulting in a shortening of the spin relaxation time through resonantly enhanced spin-phonon coupling. The effect can be detected as an abrupt reduction of the photoluminescence intensity under optical pumping without application of microwave fields. We propose all-optical protocols based on such spin-mechanical resonance to detect external magnetic fields and mass with ultra-high sensitivity. We also discuss room-temperature nonlinear effects under strong optical pumping, including spin-mediated cooling and heating of mechanical modes. Our approach suggests a new concept for quantum sensing using spin-optomechanics.Comment: 9 pages, 4 figure

Continuum of consciousness: Mind uploading and resurrection of human consciousness. Is there a place for physics, neuroscience and computers?

In this paper, I perform mental experiment to analyze hypothetical process of mind uploading. That process suggested as a way to achieve resurrection of human consciousness. Mind uploading can be seen as a migration process of the core mental functions, which migrate from a human brain to an artificial environment. To simulate the process, I suggest a topological approach which is based on a formalism of information geometry. Geometrical formalism lets us simulate the toy mind as geometrical structures as well as gives us powerful geometrical and topological methods for analysis of the information system. This approach leads to the insight about using holographic model as an analogy for the mind migration to an artificial environment. This model represents the toy mind functionality in terms of information geometry (as a geometrical shape) on information manifold. Such shape can have distributed holographic representation. This representation gives us delocalized representation of the system. At the same time, the process of creating the holographic representation gives us a strategy to migrate from original to an artificial environment and back. The interface between brain and an environment is modeled as an entropy flow which is defined as a geometrical flow on information manifold. Such flow is an analogy of holography recording for the toy mind. The opposite process of holography reconstruction is modeled by none-local Hamiltonians defined on the information manifold.Comment: 8 figures, submitted to conference Toward a Science of Consciousness 2008 April 8-12, 200

Advances in the theory and methods of computational vibronic spectroscopy

We discuss semiempirical approaches and parametric methods developed for modeling molecular vibronic spectra. These methods, together with databases of molecular fragments, have proved efficient and flexible for solving various problems ranging from detailed interpretation of conventional vibronic spectra and calculation of radiative transition probabilities to direct simulations of dynamical (time-resolved) spectra and spectrochemical analysis of individual substances and mixtures. A number of specific examples and applications presented here show the potential of the semiempirical approach for predictive calculations of spectra and solution of inverse spectral problems. It is noteworthy that these advances provide computational insights into developing theories of photoinduced isomer transformations and nonradiative transitions in polyatomic molecules and molecular ensembles, theory of new methods for standardless quantitative spectral analysis.Comment: to appear in "Advances in Laser and Optics Research", Nova Science Publishers, 200

Anisotropic Spin-Acoustic Resonance in Silicon Carbide at Room Temperature

We report on acoustically driven spin resonances in atomic-scale centers in silicon carbide at room temperature. Specifically, we use a surface acoustic wave cavity to selectively address spin transitions with magnetic quantum number differences of $\pm$1 and $\pm$2 in the absence of external microwave electromagnetic fields. These spin-acoustic resonances reveal a non-trivial dependence on the static magnetic field orientation, which is attributed to the intrinsic symmetry of the acoustic fields combined with the peculiar properties of a half-integer spin system. We develop a microscopic model of the spin-acoustic interaction, which describes our experimental data without fitting parameters. Furthermore, we predict that traveling surface waves lead to a chiral spin-acoustic resonance, which changes upon magnetic field inversion. These results establish silicon carbide as a highly-promising hybrid platform for on-chip spin-optomechanical quantum control enabling engineered interactions at room temperature.Comment: 6 pages, 3 figures, Supplemental Informatio

Engineering near infrared single photon emitters in ultrapure silicon carbide

Quantum emitters hosted in crystalline lattices are highly attractive candidates for quantum information processing, secure networks and nanosensing. For many of these applications it is necessary to have control over single emitters with long spin coherence times. Such single quantum systems have been realized using quantum dots, colour centres in diamond, dopants in nanostructures and molecules . More recently, ensemble emitters with spin dephasing times on the order of microseconds and room-temperature optically detectable magnetic resonance have been identified in silicon carbide (SiC), a compound being highly compatible to up-to-date semiconductor device technology. So far however, the engineering of such spin centres in SiC on single-emitter level has remained elusive. Here, we demonstrate the control of spin centre density in ultrapure SiC over 8 orders of magnitude, from below $10^{9}$ to above $10^{16} \,$cm$^{-3}$ using neutron irradiation. For a low irradiation dose, a fully photostable, room-temperature, near infrared (NIR) single photon emitter can clearly be isolated, demonstrating no bleaching even after $10^{14}$ excitation cycles. Based on their spectroscopic fingerprints, these centres are identified as silicon vacancies, which can potentially be used as qubits, spin sensors and maser amplifiers.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figure

Locking of electron spin coherence over fifty milliseconds in natural silicon carbide

We demonstrate that silicon carbide (SiC) with natural isotope abundance can preserve a coherent spin superposition in silicon vacancies over unexpectedly long time approaching 0.1 seconds. The spin-locked subspace with drastically reduced decoherence rate is attained through the suppression of heteronuclear spin cross-talking by applying a moderate magnetic field in combination with dynamic decoupling from the nuclear spin baths. We identify several phonon-assisted mechanisms of spin-lattice relaxation, ultimately limiting quantum coherence, and find that it can be extremely long at cryogenic temperature, equal or even longer than 8 seconds. Our approach may be extended to other polyatomic compounds and open a path towards improved qubit memory for wafer-scale quantum techmologies.Comment: Added extended data analysis based on quantum process tomography, discussion of spin-lattice relaxation mechanism

Highly efficient optical pumping of spin defects in silicon carbide for stimulated microwave emission

We investigate the pump efficiency of silicon vacancy-related spins in silicon carbide. For a crystal inserted into a microwave cavity with a resonance frequency of 9.4 GHz, the spin population inversion factor of 75 with the saturation optical pump power of about 350 mW is achieved at room temperature. At cryogenic temperature, the pump efficiency drastically increases, owing to an exceptionally long spin-lattice relaxation time exceeding one minute. Based on the experimental results, we find realistic conditions under which a silicon carbide maser can operate in continuous-wave mode and serve as a quantum microwave amplifier.Comment: 8 pages, 6 figure

Bound magnetic polarons in the very dilute regime

We study bound magnetic polarons (BMP) in a very diluted magnetic semiconductor CdMnTe by means of site selective spectroscopy. In zero magnetic field we detect a broad and asymmetric band with a characteristic spectral width of about 5 meV. When external magnetic fields are applied a new line appears in the emission spectrum. Remarkably, the spectral width of this line is reduced greatly down to 0.24 meV. We attribute such unusual behavior to the formation of BMP, effected by sizable fluctuations of local magnetic moments. The modifications of the optical spectra have been simulated by the Monte-Carlo method and calculated within an approach considering the nearest Mn ion. A quantitative agreement with the experiment is achieved without use of fitting parameters. It is demonstrated that the low-energy part of the emission spectra originates from the energetic relaxation of a complex consisting of a hole and its nearest Mn ion. It is also shown that the contribution to the narrow line arises from the remote Mn ions.Comment: 5 pages, 5 figure

Excitation and recombination dynamics of vacancy-related spin centers in silicon carbide

We generate silicon vacancy related defects in high-quality epitaxial silicon carbide layers by means of electron irradiation. By controlling the irradiation fluence, the defect concentration is varied over several orders of magnitude. We establish the excitation profile for optical pumping of these defects and evaluate the optimum excitation wavelength of 770 nm. We also measure the photoluminescence dynamics at room temperature and find a monoexponential decay with a characteristic lifetime of 6.1 ns. The integrated photoluminescence intensity depends linear on the excitation power density up to 20 kW/cm$^2$, indicating a relatively small absorption cross section of these defects.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure

Modeling of the time-resolved vibronic spectra of polyatomic molecules: the formulation of the problem and analysis of kinetic equations

A semiempirical parametric method is proposed for modeling three-dimensional (time-resolved) vibronic spectra of polyatomic molecules. The method is based on the use of the fragment approach in the formation of molecular models for excited electronic states and parametrization of these molecular fragments by modeling conventional (one-dimensional) absorption and fluorescence spectra of polyatomic molecules. All matrix elements that are required for calculation of the spectra can be found by the methods developed. The time dependencies of the populations of a great number (>10^3) of vibronic levels can be most conveniently found by using the iterative numerical method of integration of kinetic equations. Convenient numerical algorithms and specialized software for PC are developed. Computer experiments showed the possibility of the real-time modeling of three-dimensional spectra of polyatomic molecules containing several tens of atoms