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Kim Ullerich

Publications and source records attributed to Kim Ullerich.

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Electrically tunable, two-photon interference from remote silicon-vacancy centers in industrial silicon carbide

Distributed quantum networks rely on spatially separated, independently operated quantum systems as network nodes, whose emitted photons must be interfered with high visibility to establish end-to-end entanglement. Crucially, for network-relevant applications, high visibilities must be achieved over prolonged timescales to reduce overheads for error correction, and to increase network rates. Here, we demonstrate experimentally that silicon vacancy $\mathrm{V_{Si}}$ color centers in silicon carbide (SiC) achieve these requirements, notably in a mass-deployable fashion. We integrate $\mathrm{V_{Si}}$ centers in different industrial-grade SiC p-i-n diodes, which are controlled via voltage biassing. This way, we demonstrate both, spectral overlapping of 19 randomly selected $\mathrm{V_{Si}}$ centers in different diodes, as well as spectral narrowing close to the lifetime limit, i.e., typically below 60 MHz. Notably, these performance parameters are long-term stable, e.g., readjusting the p-i-n diode bias is required only every 8.4 hours, which reduces significantly the overall experimental overhead. We then use these assets to demonstrate high-quality two-photon interference between $\mathrm{V_{Si}}$ centers located in two different cryostat setups, which are spatially separated by two meters. Notably, we perform a 26-days long measurement campaign, demonstrating two-photon interference with state-of-the-art raw interference visibilities of 82%, which aligns with the current state-of-the-art. These results establish $\mathrm{V_{Si}}$ centers in industry-grade SiC devices as a scalable, spectrally stable building block for distributed quantum networks.

quant-ph

Strain-induced modification of spin-optical dynamics in silicon vacancy centers for integrated quantum technologies

Silicon vacancy (VSi) centers in 4H silicon carbide have emerged as a highly promising platform for semiconductor-based quantum technologies, combining excellent spin and optical properties with an industrial-grade, CMOS-compatible material. As these defects are increasingly integrated into practical quantum devices, they inevitably encounter lattice strain. However, while the impact of strain is well documented for other solid-state defects like NV centers in diamond, its specific influence on key VSi spin dynamics such as initialization fidelity and state lifetimes remain largely unexplored. In this work, we address this critical gap by designing fully optical pulse sequences and incorporating the effective spin-3/2 strain Hamiltonian into our analysis. This combined approach allows us to isolate both axial and transverse strain contributions and systematically characterize their effect on the metastable state transition rates. Specifically, we reveal that strain significantly reduces the transition rates from the energetically lowest metastable state to the ground state quartet, leading to decreased photon emission. Supported by first-principles calculations, our findings provide a deeper understanding of VSi spin-strain dynamics, yielding crucial insights for the robust deployment of these centers in realistic, strain-prone environments.

quant-ph