Discovery of Atomic Clock-Like Spin Defects in Simple Oxides from First Principles
Abstract
Virtually noiseless due to the scarcity of spinful nuclei in the lattice, simple oxides hold promise as hosts of solid-state spin qubits. However, no suitable spin defect has yet been found in these systems. Using high-throughput first-principles calculations, we predict spin defects in calcium oxide with electronic properties remarkably similar to those of the NV center in diamond. These defects are charged complexes where a dopant atom -- Sb, Bi, or I -- occupies the volume vacated by adjacent cation and anion vacancies. The predicted zero phonon line shows that the Bi complex emits in the telecommunication range, and the computed many-body energy levels suggest a viable optical cycle required for qubit initialization. Notably, the high-spin nucleus of each dopant strongly couples to the electron spin, leading to many controllable quantum levels and the emergence of atomic clock-like transitions that are well protected from environmental noise. Specifically, the Hanh-echo coherence time increases beyond seconds at the clock-like transition in the defect with \ch{^{209}Bi}. Our results pave the way to designing quantum states with long coherence times in simple oxides, making them attractive platforms for quantum technologies.
Cite
@article{arxiv.2302.07523,
title = {Discovery of Atomic Clock-Like Spin Defects in Simple Oxides from First Principles},
author = {Joel Davidsson and Mykyta Onizhuk and Christian Vorwerk and Giulia Galli},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2302.07523},
year = {2024}
}