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  • Open Access

Deep Spin Defects in Zinc Oxide for High-Fidelity Single-Shot Readout

Shimin Zhang and Erik Perez*

Taejoon Park*

Kejun Li

Xingyi Wang

Masoud Mansouri

Yanyong Wang, Jorge D. Vega Bazantes, Ruiqi Zhang, and Jianwei Sun

Kai-Mei C. Fu†

Hosung Seo‡

Yuan Ping§

  • SKKU Advanced Institute of Nanotechnology, Sungkyunkwan University, Suwon, Gyeonggi 16419, Korea
  • and Department of Energy Systems Research and Department of Physics, Ajou University, Suwon, Gyeonggi 16499, Korea

  • School of Science & Engineering, Tulane University, 6823 St Charles Ave, New Orleans, Louisiana 70118, USA

  • *SZ, TP, and EP contributed equally.
  • †Contact author: kaimeifu@uw.edu
  • ‡Contact author: seo.hosung@skku.edu
  • §Contact author: yping3@wisc.edu
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PRX Quantum 7, 020348 – Published 3 June, 2026

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/v3fp-821b

Abstract

Wide-band gap oxides such as ZnO are favorable hosts for spin defect qubits due to their dilute nuclear spin background and potential for ultrahigh purity. Yet, a deep-level defect qubit with robust optical and spin properties has not been identified in this material. Here, using first-principles calculations, we predict that the molybdenum-vacancy complex, (MoZnvO)2+, exhibits the essential characteristics of an optically addressable spin qubit: a spin-triplet ground state, visible-range optical transitions with high quantum yield, and an unusually small Huang-Rhys factor (∼5, compared to 10–30 in known ZnO defects). We further find long spin coherence times (T2∼4ms) when both nuclear and impurity spin baths are considered, with paramagnetic impurities setting a threshold concentration of 0.035 ppm. Importantly, the combination of strong spin-orbit coupling and the absence of Jahn-Teller distortion supports spin-selective intersystem crossing and high-fidelity single-shot readout at elevated temperatures and across wide magnetic field ranges. By identifying ZnO as a host for deep-level defect qubits, our work points toward a pathway to scalable, integrable oxide-based quantum technologies and broadens the material foundation for solid-state quantum information science.

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Popular Summary

Wide-bandgap oxides such as ZnO offer a favorable environment for spin defect qubits due to their dilute nuclear spin background and potential for ultrahigh purity. Identifying deep-level defect qubits is essential for room-temperature optical initialization and quantum emission, robust against environmental noise, which remains a long-standing issue. In this work, we proposed deep-level triplet defects in ZnO as promising optically addressable spin qubits and computationally predicted their advantageous spin and optical properties the first such proposal in this system. We raised, for the first time, the concern that paramagnetic impurities could be a dominant source of spin decoherence in ZnO, predicting their critical concentration as the limiting factor for spin coherence time. Despite the commonly assumed strong electron-phonon coupling in transition metal oxides as one limitation of using oxides as spin qubit hosts, we demonstrated that the proposed defects exhibit a small Huang Rhys factor (around 5) compared to 10–30 from known defects in ZnO and explained the underlying physical mechanism. We proposed, for the first time, possibility of high-fidelity readout mechanism for systems with forbidden axial intersystem crossing transition and strong spin-orbit couplings, which could be extended to other spin qubit platforms.

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PRX Quantum 7, 020348– Published 3 June, 2026
  • Received 12 July 2025
  • Revised 17 December 2025
  • Accepted 23 March 2026
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