- Physical Review Journals
All JournalsPhysics Magazine

Physical Review Applied

Reuse & Permissions

It is not necessary to obtain permission to reuse this article or its components as it is available under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. This license permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided attribution to the author(s) and the published article's title, journal citation, and DOI are maintained. Please note that some figures may have been included with permission from other third parties. It is your responsibility to obtain the proper permission from the rights holder directly for these figures.

Export citation

Export citation

Choose format for download:

Download Citation
  • Editors' Suggestion
  • Open Access

Quantum magnetometer chip based on industrially scalable 4H-SiC technology

P. A. Stuermer1,3, D. Wirtitsch2, T. Steidl3, R. Wörnle3, J. Körber3, W. Schustereder1, C. Zmoelnig1, P. Urlesberger1, F. Chiapolino1 et al.

S. Meinardi1, K. Edelmann4, M. Kern5, J. Anders4,5, S. Krainer1, H. Heiss6, M. Trupke2, and J. Wrachtrup3

PDF

Phys. Rev. Applied 26, 044002 – Published 1 October, 2026

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/w49h-wfck

Abstract

This work presents an industrially scalable, power-efficient quantum magnetometer chip based on 4H-silicon carbide (SiC) technology, leveraging wafer-scale fabrication techniques to optimize V2 silicon-vacancy color centers for reproducible fabrication. The integration of these color center ensembles into a planar silicon carbide waveguide enables efficient excitation of a large ensemble and simplifies fluorescence extraction compared with standard confocal methods. We report continuous wave (cw) optically detected magnetic resonance measurements, complemented by Rabi, Ramsey, and Hahn-echo sequences, which demonstrate the coherent capabilities of the large embedded ensemble of V2 centers. Based on the data, our device exhibits sensor shot-noise-limited sensitivities of around 30  nT/Hz, 2–3 orders of magnitude lower compared with more complex confocal techniques. This concept simplifies the quantum sensor architecture, enhances sensitivity, and streamlines optical excitation and collection, thereby paving the way for the development of next-generation SiC-quantum sensing technologies.

View figure in article

Physics Subject Headings (PhySH)

Article Text

References (39)

  1. A. Gruber, A. Dräbenstedt, C. Tietz, L. Fleury, J. Wrachtrup, and Cvon Borczyskowski, Scanning confocal optical microscopy and magnetic resonance on single defect centers, Science 276, 2012 (1997).
  2. R. Schirhagl, K. Chang, M. Loretz, and C. L. Degen, Nitrogen-vacancy centers in diamond: Nanoscale sensors for physics and biology, Annu. Rev. Phys. Chem. 65, 83 (2014).
  3. Yole. Quantum technologies, Quantum technologies 2023, market and technology trends, Yole Group, Technical report, 2023.
  4. S. Castelletto, C. T.-K. Lew, W.-X. Lin, and J.-S. Xu, Quantum systems in silicon carbide for sensing applications, Rep. Prog. Phys. 87, 014501 (2023).
  5. N. Sekiguchi, M. Fushimi, A. Yoshimura, C. Shinei, M. Miyakawa, T. Taniguchi, T. Teraji, H. Abe, S. Onoda, T. Ohshima, M. Hatano, M. Sekino, and T. Iwasaki, Diamond quantum magnetometer with dc sensitivity of sub-10 pT Hz-1/2 toward measurement of biomagnetic field, Phys. Rev. Appl. 21, 064010 (2024).
  6. J. F. Barry, J. M. Schloss, E. Bauch, M. J. Turner, C. A. Hart, L. M. Pham, and R. L. Walsworth, Sensitivity optimization for NV-diamond magnetometry, Rev. Mod. Phys. 92, 015004 (2020).
  7. D. Wirtitsch, G. Wachter, S. Reisenbauer, M. Gulka, V. Ivády, F. Jelezko, A. Gali, M. Nesladek, and M. Trupke, Exploiting ionization dynamics in the nitrogen vacancy center for rapid, high-contrast spin, and charge state initialization, Phys. Rev. Res. 5, 013014 (2023).
  8. D. Simin, V A. Soltamov, A V. Poshakinskiy, A N. Anisimov, R A. Babunts, D O. Tolmachev, E N. Mokhov, M. Trupke, S A. Tarasenko, A. Sperlich, P G. Baranov, V. Dyakonov, and G V. Astakhov, All-optical dc nanotesla magnetometry using silicon vacancy fine structure in isotopically purified silicon carbide, Phys. Rev. X 6, 031014 (2016).
  9. M. Widmann, S.-Y. Lee, T. Rendler, N. T. Son, H. Fedder, S. Paik, L.-P. Yang, N. Zhao, S. Yang, I. Booker, A. Denisenko, M. Jamali, S. A. Momenzadeh, I. Gerhardt, T. Ohshima, A. Gali, E. Janzén, and Jörg Wrachtrup, Coherent control of single spins in silicon carbide at room temperature, Nat. Mater. 14, 164 (2015).
  10. M. Widmann, M. Niethammer, T. Makino, T. Rendler, S. Lasse, T. Ohshima, J. Ul Hassan, N. Tien Son, S.-Y. Lee, and Jörg Wrachtrup, Bright single photon sources in lateral silicon carbide light emitting diodes, Appl. Phys. Lett. 112, 231103 (2018).
  11. M. Widmann, M. Niethammer, D. Y. Fedyanin, I. A. Khramtsov, T. Rendler, I. D. Booker, J. Ul Hassan, N. Morioka, Y.-C. Chen, I. G. Ivanov, N. T. Son, T. Ohshima, M. Bockstedte, A. Gali, C. Bonato, S.-Y. Lee, and Jörg Wrachtrup, Electrical charge state manipulation of single silicon vacancies in a silicon carbide quantum optoelectronic device, Nano Lett. 19, 7173 (2019).
  12. T. Steidl, P. Kuna, E. Hesselmeier-Hüttmann, L. Di, R. Stöhr, W. Knolle, M. Ghezellou, J. Ul-Hassan, M. Schober, M. Bockstedte et al., Single v2 defect in 4H silicon carbide Schottky diode at low temperature, Nat. Commun. 16, 6996 (2025).
  13. R. Nagy, M. Niethammer, M. Widmann, Y.-C. Chen, P. Udvarhelyi, C. Bonato, J. Ul Hassan, R. Karhu, I. G. Ivanov, N. T. Son et al., High-fidelity spin and optical control of single silicon-vacancy centres in silicon carbide, Nat. Commun. 10, 1954 (2019).
  14. J. Heiler, J. Körber, E. Hesselmeier, P. Kuna, R. Stöhr, P. Fuchs, M. Ghezellou, J. Ul-Hassan, W. Knolle, C. Becher, F. Kaiser, and Jörg Wrachtrup, Spectral stability of v2 centres in sub-micron 4H-SiC membranes, npj Quantum Mater. 9, 34 (2024).
  15. M. Niethammer, M. Widmann, S.-Y. Lee, P. Stenberg, O. Kordina, T. Ohshima, N. T. Son, E. Janzén, and Jörg Wrachtrup, Vector magnetometry using silicon vacancies in 4 H-SiC under ambient conditions, Phys. Rev. Appl. 6, 034001 (2016).
  16. M. Niethammer, M. Widmann, T. Rendler, N. Morioka, Y.-C. Chen, R. Stöhr, J. U. Hassan, S. Onoda, T. Ohshima, S.-Y. Lee, A. Mukherjee, J. Isoya, N. T. Son, and Jörg Wrachtrup, Coherent electrical readout of defect spins in silicon carbide by photo-ionization at ambient conditions, Nat. Commun. 10, 5569 (2019).
  17. ÖO. Soykal, P. Dev, and S. E. Economou, Silicon vacancy center in 4 H-SiC: Electronic structure and spin-photon interfaces, Phys. Rev. B 93, 081207(R) (2016).
  18. Q. Li, J.-F. Wang, F.-F. Yan, J.-Y. Zhou, H.-F. Wang, H. Liu, L.-P. Guo, X. Zhou, A. Gali, Z.-H. Liu, Z.-Q. Wang, K. Sun, G.-P. Guo, J.-S. Tang, H. Li, L.-X. You, J.-S. Xu, C.-F. Li, and G.-C. Guo, Room-temperature coherent manipulation of single-spin qubits in silicon carbide with a high readout contrast, Natl. Sci. Rev. 9, nwab122 (2022).
  19. J. B. S. Abraham, C. Gutgsell, D. Todorovski, S. Sperling, J. E. Epstein, B. S. Tien-Street, T. M. Sweeney, J. J. Wathen, E. A. Pogue, P. G. Brereton, T. M. McQueen, W. Frey, B. D. Clader, and R. Osiander, Nanotesla magnetometry with the silicon vacancy in silicon carbide, Phys. Rev. Appl. 15, 064022 (2021).
  20. K. V. Likhachev, M. V. Uchaev, I. P. Veyshtort, A. V. Batueva, A. S. Gurin, R. A. Babunts, and P. G. Baranov, All-optical vector magnetometry based on fine and hyperfine interactions in spin-3 2 centers in silicon carbide, J. Appl. Phys. 137, 015701 (2025).
  21. A. Gottscholl, H. Kraus, T. Aichinger, and C. J. Cochrane, Enhancing the electrical readout of the spin-dependent recombination current in SiC JFETs for EDMR based magnetometry using a tandem (de-) modulation technique, Sci. Rep. 14, 14283 (2024).
  22. A. Gottscholl, C. J. Cochrane, and H. Kraus, Operation modes of an optically pumped 6H-SiC quantum/solid state magnetometer, IEEE Sens. J. 24, 17596 (2024).
  23. V. V. Soshenko, S. V. Bolshedvorskii, O. Rubinas, V. N. Sorokin, A. N. Smolyaninov, V. V. Vorobyov, and A. V. Akimov, Nuclear spin gyroscope based on the nitrogen vacancy center in diamond, Phys. Rev. Lett. 126, 197702 (2021).
  24. H. Kraus, V. A. Soltamov, F. Fuchs, D. Simin, A. Sperlich, P. G. Baranov, G. V. Astakhov, and V. Dyakonov, Magnetic field and temperature sensing with atomic-scale spin defects in silicon carbide, Sci. Rep. 4, 5303 (2014).
  25. D. Simin, Quantum sensing with highly coherent spin centers in silicon carbide, PhD thesis, Universität Würzburg, 2017.
  26. I. Lekavicius, S. G. Carter, D. J. Pennachio, S. White, J. R. Hajzus, A. P. Purdy, D. K. Gaskill, A. L. Yeats, and R. L. Myers-Ward, Magnetometry based on silicon-vacancy centers in isotopically purified 4 H-SiC, Phys. Rev. Appl. 19, 044086 (2023).
  27. C. Babin, R. Stöhr, N. Morioka, T. Linkewitz, T. Steidl, R. Wörnle, D. Liu, E. Hesselmeier, V. Vorobyov, A. Denisenko, M. Hentschel, C. Gobert, P. Berwian, G. V. Astakhov, W. Knolle, S. Majety, P. Saha, M. Radulaski, N. T. Son, J. Ul-Hassan, F. Kaiser, and Jörg Wrachtrup, Fabrication and nanophotonic waveguide integration of silicon carbide colour centres with preserved spin-optical coherence, Nat. Mater. 21, 67 (2022).
  28. T. Bosma, J. Hendriks, M. Ghezellou, N. T. Son, J. Ul-Hassan, and C. H. van der Wal, Broadband single-mode planar waveguides in monolithic 4H-SiC, J. Appl. Phys. 131, 025703 (2022).
  29. M. Radulaski, M. Widmann, M. Niethammer, J. L. Zhang, S.-Y. Lee, T. Rendler, K. G. Lagoudakis, N. T. Son, E. Janzén, T. Ohshima, Jörg Wrachtrup, and J. Vučković, Scalable quantum photonics with single color centers in silicon carbide, Nano Lett. 17, 1782 (2017).
  30. M. Krumrein, R. Nold, F. Davidson-Marquis, A. Bouamra, L. Niechziol, T. Steidl, R. Peng, J. Körber, R. Stöhr, N. Gross, J. H. Smet, J. Ul-Hassan, Péter Udvarhelyi, A. Gali, F. Kaiser, and Jörg Wrachtrup, Precise characterization of a waveguide fiber interface in silicon carbide, ACS Photonics 11, 2160 (2024).
  31. P. A. Stuermer, T. Steidl, R. Woernle, W. Schustereder, C. Zmoelnig, J. Riss, H. Schoenherr, P. Urlesberger, K. Edelmann, M. Kaschel, M. Kern, J. Anders, S. Krainer, H. Heiss, and J. Wrachtrup, Low loss 4H-SiC photonics for spin-quantum sensing, Appl. Phys. Lett. 127, 104001 (2025).
  32. J. F. Ziegler and J. P. Biersack, The stopping and range of, Treatise on Heavy-Ion Science: Volume 6: Astrophysics, Chemistry, and Condensed Matter (Springer, New York, NY, 2012), p. 95.
  33. M. E. Bathen, A. Galeckas, J. Müting, H. M. Ayedh, U. Grossner, J. Coutinho, Y. K. Frodason, and L. Vines, Electrical charge state identification and control for the silicon vacancy in 4H-SiC, npj Quantum Inf. 5, 111 (2019).
  34. S. Reisenbauer, P. Behal, G. Wachter, and M. Trupke, Lithpulser: An open-source pulse generator with 1 ns time resolution based on the red pitaya stemlab 125-10 featuring real-time conditional logic for experimental control, Rev. Sci. Instrum. 93, 014708 (2022).
  35. S. G. Carter, ÖO. Soykal, P. Dev, S. E. Economou, and E. R. Glaser, Spin coherence and echo modulation of the silicon vacancy in 4 H-SiC at room temperature, Phys. Rev. B 92, 161202(R) (2015).
  36. J. R. Weber, W. F. Koehl, J. B. Varley, A. Janotti, B. B. Buckley, C. G. Van de Walle, and D. D. Awschalom, Defects in sic for quantum computing, J. Appl. Phys. 109 102417 (2011).
  37. R. Nagy, M. Widmann, M. Niethammer, D. B. R. Dasari, I. Gerhardt, Öney O. Soykal, M. Radulaski, T. Ohshima, J. Vučković, N. T. Son, I. G. Ivanov, S. E. Economou, C. Bonato, S.-Y. Lee, and Jörg Wrachtrup, Quantum properties of dichroic silicon vacancies in silicon carbide, Phys. Rev. Appl. 9, 034022 (2018).
  38. H. Singh, M. A. Hollberg, A. N. Anisimov, P. G. Baranov, and D. Suter, Multi-photon multi-quantum transitions in the spin-3 2 silicon-vacancy centers of SiC, Phys. Rev. Res. 4, 023022 (2022).
  39. D. Liu, F. Kaiser, V. Bushmakin, E. Hesselmeier, T. Steidl, T. Ohshima, N. T. Son, J. Ul-Hassan, Öney O. Soykal, and Jörg Wrachtrup, The silicon vacancy centers in SiC: Determination of intrinsic spin dynamics for integrated quantum photonics, npj Quantum Inf. 10, 72 (2024).

Outline

Information

Phys. Rev. Applied 26, 044002– Published 1 October, 2026
  • Received 20 January 2026
  • Revised 5 June 2026
  • Accepted 10 September 2026
Crossmark - Check for updates button
Creative Commons Logo

Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article’s title, journal citation, and DOI.

Published by the American Physical Society

Sign In to Your Journals Account

Filter

Filter

Article Lookup

Enter a citation