SEMINAR: Physics Seminar

Defects are common in many materials and some were regarded as detrimental. Recently with the advent of ultra-sensitive detectors, super-resolution microscopy advanced methodologies, optical single spin magnetic resonance and advanced material synthesis and doping, some of conventional semiconductors intra-band gap defects and their nanostructured counterpart are revealed to be a disruptive discovery for nanoscale sensing in physics, biology and quantum technology1. The most well-known defect attracting attention is the nitrogen vacancy –centre in diamond, being studied now for over 20 years since its inception. I will summarise the impact of this defect in some area of fundamental research, and some of my latest and ongoing work on this defect in super-resolution and its application to cells imaging2. I will discuss equivalent defects centre in other similar semiconductors, such as silicon carbide (SiC)3-7 and zinc oxide8. Both materials harbour similar defects as NV in diamond, and we have recently identified the first single photon emission in 4H-SiC attributed to a carbon-antisite vacancy pairs. I will show more recent results on single defects SiC nanoparticles9, tetrapods10 and SiC devices11 providing novel information on their physics and atomistic structure. The fundamental understanding of these defects is essential for their engineering and deployment in next generation multifunctional sensors.