All-optical coherent population trapping with defect spin ensembles in silicon carbide

Divacancy defects in silicon carbide have long-lived electronic spin states and sharp optical transitions. Because of the various polytypes of SiC, hundreds of unique divacancies exist, many with spin properties comparable to the nitrogen-vacancy center in diamond. If ensembles of such spins can be all-optically manipulated, they make compelling candidate systems for quantum-enhanced memory, communication, and sensing applications. We report here direct all-optical addressing of basal plane-oriented divacancy spins in 4H-SiC. By means of magneto-spectroscopy, we fully identify the spin triplet structure of both the ground and the excited state, and use this for tuning of transition dipole moments between particular spin levels. We also identify a role for relaxation via intersystem crossing. Building on these results, we demonstrate coherent population trapping -a key effect for quantum state transfer between spins and photons- for divacancy sub-ensembles along particular crystal axes. These results, combined with the flexibility of SiC polytypes and device processing, put SiC at the forefront of quantum information science in the solid state.