Atomically Precise Detection and Manipulation of Nitrogen-Vacancy Centers in Nanodiamonds

Abstract

Nitrogen-vacancy (NV) centers in nanodiamonds are a promising quantum communication system offering robust and discrete single photon emission, but a more thorough understanding of properties of the NV centers is critical for real world implementation in functional devices. The first step to understanding how factors such as surface, depth, and charge state affect NV center properties is to directly characterize these defects on the atomic scale. Here we use Angstrom-resolution scanning transmission electron microscopy (STEM) to identify a single NV center in a ∼4 nm natural nanodiamond through simultaneous acquisition of electron energy loss and energy dispersive X-ray spectra, which provide a characteristic NV center peak and a nitrogen peak, respectively. In addition, we identify NV centers in larger, ∼15 nm synthetic nanodiamonds, although without the single-defect resolution afforded by the lower background of the smaller natural nanodiamonds. We have further demonstrated the potential to directly position these technologically relevant defects at the atomic scale using the scanning electron beam to “herd” NV centers and nitrogen atoms across their host nanodiamonds.

Preparing highly entangled states of nanodiamond rotation and NV center spin

“…Extremely small (2-5 nm) nanodiamond with an embedded NV center has been reported in recent experiment. [28] In our calculations, we take the bottom side length of the nanodiamond a = 1 nm and height h = 1.225 nm, which leads to…”

Impurity atom configurations in diamond and their visibility via scanning transmission electron microscopy imaging

“…More recently, nitrogen containing platelet defects were identified in natural type Ia diamond with TEM showing atomic resolution and the spectroscopic fingerprint [15]. Moreover, the spectroscopic identification of a single NV center was demonstrated in 2023 [16] in 4 nm natural nanodiamond.…”