Creation of ensembles of nitrogen-vacancy centers in diamond by neutron and electron irradiation

2013/09/02 by Tobias Nöbauer, Kathrin Buczak, Nöbauer, Tobias +17
Physics and Astronomy · #FOS: Physical sciences #Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci) #Quantum Physics (quant-ph) #cond-mat.mtrl-sci #quant-ph

paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.1309.0453

12 pages, 9 figures, 1 table

arxiv created 2013/09/02 · arxiv updated 2013/09/03

Abstract

We created dense ensembles of negatively charged nitrogen-vacancy (NV-) centers in diamond by neutron and electron irradiation for applications in hybrid quantum systems and magnetometry. We characterize fluorescence intensity, optical and coherence properties of the resulting defects by confocal microscopy, UV/Vis and FTIR spectroscopy, optically detected magnetic resonance and small angle X-ray scattering. We find the highest densities of NV- at neutron fluences on the order of 10¹7 cm^-2 and electron doses of 10¹8 cm^-2, with spin resonance linewidths of 6 MHz. Lower electron energies increase the ratio of centers in the desired negative charge state to those in the neutral one. Annealing at 900 °C during the irradiation reduces the spin resonance linewidth. Electron irradiation furthermore results in substantially higher optical transparency compared to neutron irradiation.

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