  Bulk silicon carbide (SiC) is a very promising material system for
bio-applications and quantum sensing. However, its optical activity lies beyond
the near infrared spectral window for in-vivo imaging and fiber communications
due to a large forbidden energy gap. Here, we report the fabrication of SiC
nanocrystals and isolation of different nanocrystal fractions ranged from 600
nm down to 60 nm in size. The structural analysis reveals further fragmentation
of the smallest nanocrystals into ca. 10-nm-size clusters of high crystalline
quality, separated by amorphization areas. We use neutron irradiation to create
silicon vacancies, demonstrating near infrared photoluminescence. Finally, we
detect, for the first time, room-temperature spin resonances of these silicon
vacancies hosted in SiC nanocrystals. This opens intriguing perspectives to use
them not only as in-vivo luminescent markers, but also as magnetic field and
temperature sensors, allowing for monitoring various physical, chemical and
biological processes.
