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Optical Polarization of Nuclear Spins in Silicon Carbide

At the Chicago MRSEC, collaboration between Awschalom and MRSEC international collaborator Gali from the Hungarian Academy of Sciences leads to microscopic understanding of decoherence in silicon divacancy centers in silicon carbide. Highlighted on the cover of Physical Review Letters are the results of these efforts that enable 100% optical nuclear polarization at room temperature. These results lay a foundation for SiC-based quantum memories, nuclear gyroscopes, and hyperpolarized probes for magnetic resonance imaging, as well as for the joint work of Awschalom and Galli on designing defect spins for wafer-scale quantum technologies.