Nuclear spins with hyperfine coupling to single electron spins are highly valuable quantum bits. Here we probe and characterize the particularly rich nuclear-spin environment around single silicon vacancy color centers ($V2$) in $4H$-SiC. By using the electron spin-$3/2$ qudit as a four level sensor, we identify several sets of ${}^{29}\mathrm{Si}$ and ${}^{13}\mathrm{C}$ nuclear spins through their hyperfine interaction. We extract the major components of their hyperfine coupling via optical detected nuclear magnetic resonance, and assign them to shells in the crystal via the density function theory simulations. We utilize the ground-state level anticrossing of the electron spin for dynamic nuclear polarization and achieve a nuclear-spin polarization of up to $98\pm 6\%$. We show that this scheme can be used to detect the nuclear magnetic resonance signal of individual spins and demonstrate their coherent control. Our work provides a detailed set of parameters and first steps for future use of SiC as a multiqubit memory and quantum computing platform.

• Received 23 October 2023
• Accepted 17 January 2024

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.132.090601