Effects of low-energy electron irradiation on formation of nitrogen–vacancy centers in single-crystal diamond

Schwartz, J.; Aloni, Shaul; Ogletree, D. Frank; Schenkel, T.

doi:10.1088/1367-2630/14/4/043024

Cited by 53 publications

(51 citation statements)

References 40 publications

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“…NV centers are produced in large area single crystal diamond as well as in nano-diamonds by ion implantation technique [24]. However, during ion implantation, it is easier to induce structural modifications (graphitization) in diamond nanoparticles compared to the large area single crystal diamond thin film [25].…”

Section: The Formation Of Nv Centersmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In practice, this phenomenon is quite different, because the defects created by implantation enhance the diffusion process. Usually, the annealing treatment is done by keeping the ion implanted samples in a vacuum furnace at a temperature between 800 • C and 1000 • C. Schwartz et al studied the effect of low-energy electrons on formation of NV centers in low-energy nitrogen ion implantation on single-crystal diamonds [24]. The implanted single crystal diamond was exposed to the low-energy source, which led to the formation of NV centers without any thermal annealing.…”

Section: Implant Damage and Damage Annealingmentioning

confidence: 99%

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An Overview on the Formation and Processing of Nitrogen-Vacancy Photonic Centers in Diamond by Ion Implantation

Haque

Sumaiya

2017

JMMP

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Nitrogen-vacancy (NV) in diamond possesses unique properties for the realization of novel quantum devices. Among the possibilities in the solid state, a NV defect center in diamond stands out for its robustness-its quantum state can be initialized, manipulated, and measured with high fidelity at room temperature. In this paper, we illustrated the formation kinetics of NV centers in diamond and their transformation from one charge state to another. The controlled scaling of diamond NV center-based quantum registers relies on the ability to position NV defect centers with high spatial resolution. Ion irradiation technique is widely used to control the spatial distribution of NV defect centers in diamond. This is addressed in terms of energetics and kinetics in this paper. We also highlighted important factors, such as ion struggling, ion channeling, and surface charging, etc. These factors should be considered while implanting energetic nitrogen ions on diamond. Based on observations of the microscopic structure after implantation, we further discussed post-annealing treatment to heal the damage produced during the ion irradiation process. This article shows that the ion implantation technique can be used more efficiently for controlled and efficient generation of NV color centers in diamond, which will open up new possibilities in the field of novel electronics and computational engineering, including the art of quantum cryptography, data science, and spintronics.

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Section: The Formation Of Nv Centersmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Implant Damage and Damage Annealingmentioning

confidence: 99%

An Overview on the Formation and Processing of Nitrogen-Vacancy Photonic Centers in Diamond by Ion Implantation

Haque

Sumaiya

2017

JMMP

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“…As a result, in most cases it would be beneficial to increase the concentration of NV centers while keeping the nitrogen concentration constant, i.e. improve the N to NV conversion efficiency.A common technique for improving the conversion efficiency is the irradiation of the sample with electrons [16][17][18], protons [19], or ions [20], which creates vacancies in the lattice. Additional annealing mobilizes the vacancies, thus increasing their probability of occupying lattice sites adjacent to isolated nitrogens and forming stable NV centers.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Enhanced concentrations of nitrogen-vacancy centers in diamond through TEM irradiation

Farfurnik

Alfasi

Masis

et al. 2017

Applied Physics Letters

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The studies of many-body dynamics of interacting spin ensembles, as well as quantum sensing in solid state systems, are often limited by the need for high spin concentrations, along with efficient decoupling of the spin ensemble from its environment. In particular, for an ensemble of nitrogenvacancy (NV) centers in diamond, high conversion efficiencies between nitrogen (P1) defects and NV centers are essential, while maintaining long coherence times of an NV ensemble. In this work, we study the effect of electron irradiation on the conversion efficiency and the coherence time of various types of diamond samples with different initial nitrogen concentrations. The samples were irradiated using a 200 keV transmission electron microscope (TEM). Our study reveals that the efficiency of NV creation strongly depends on the initial conversion efficiency as well as on the initial nitrogen concentration. The irradiation of the examined samples exhibits an order of magnitude improvement in the NV concentration (up to ∼ 10 11 NV/cm 2 ), without degradation in their coherence times of ∼ 180 µs. We address the potential of this technique toward the study of many-body physics of NV ensembles and the creation of non-classical spin states for quantum sensing. The study of quantum many-body spin physics in realistic solid-state platforms has been a long-standing goal in quantum and condensed-matter physics. In addition to the fundamental understanding of spin dynamics, such research could pave the way toward the demonstration of non-classical spin states, which will be useful for a variety of applications in quantum information and quantum sensing. One of the leading candidates for such studies is the negatively charged nitrogen-vacancy (NV) center in diamond, having unique spin and optical properties, which make it useful for various sensing applications [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9], as well as a resource for quantum information processing and quantum simulation [10][11][12].The current state-of-the-art is limited by the requirement of obtaining high spin concentrations while maintaining long coherence times. The sensitivity of magnetic sensing grows as the square-root of the number of spins [1,3], thus enhanced NV concentrations could improve magnetometric sensitivities. Furthermore, enhanced NV concentrations could lead to strong NV-NV couplings, which together with long coherence times, achieved using a proper dynamical decoupling protocol [13], could pave the way toward the study of many-body dynamics in the NV-NV interaction-dominated regime [10][11][12]. However, nitrogen defects not associated with vacancies (P1 centers) create randomly fluctuating magnetic fields that cause decoherence of the quantum state of the NV ensemble [14,15]. As a result, in most cases it would be beneficial to increase the concentration of NV centers while keeping the nitrogen concentration constant, i.e. improve the N to NV conversion efficiency.A common technique for improving the conversion efficiency is the irradiation of the sample with elec...

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“…12 Recent work has focused on proton and electron irradiation on diamond, studying the converted NV À and NV 0 concentrations for optical-magnetometer applications 8 as well as NV À formation using low-energy electrons. 13 In this work, we used TEM irradiation of [100]-oriented nitrogen-rich type-Ib single-crystal bulk diamond. After irradiation, the vacancies are made mobile by annealing at approximately 700 C. The vacancies bind with a neutral substitutional nitrogen center, N 0 S , to form an NV À center as follows:…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Electron spin resonance shift and linewidth broadening of nitrogen-vacancy centers in diamond as a function of electron irradiation dose

Kim¹,

Acosta

Bauch

et al. 2012

Appl. Phys. Lett.

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A high-nitrogen-concentration diamond sample was subjected to 200-keV electron irradiation using a transmission electron microscope. The optical and spin-resonance properties of the nitrogen-vacancy (NV) color centers were investigated as a function of the irradiation dose up to 6.4 Â 10 21 e À /cm 2 . The microwave transition frequency of the NV À center was found to shift by up to 0.6% (17.1 MHz) and the linewidth broadened with increasing electron-irradiation dose. Unexpectedly, the measured magnetic sensitivity is best at the lowest irradiation dose, even though the NV concentration increases monotonically with increasing dose. This is in large part due to a sharp reduction in optically detected spin contrast at higher doses. The nitrogen-vacancy (NV) center in diamond has been explored recently for many applications including quantum information, 1 magnetic sensors, 2-5 and subwavelength imaging. 6 Much of the NV utility is due to its optically detectable ground-state electron spin resonance. To achieve the best performance of magnetic-sensing devices utilizing ensembles of NV À centers, a high concentration of the centers is desired.7 This is achieved by either implanting nitrogen into pure diamond or by creating vacancies in nitrogen-rich diamond, followed by annealing to produce NV centers. Substitutional nitrogen atoms (N S ) that do not form NV centers are a source of spin dephasing, so it is important to optimize the conversion of N S to NV. One way to achieve this is with high-dose electron irradiation followed by annealing. 8 In this paper, the effects of irradiation damage on the magneticsensing properties of the NV centers are explored.Vacancies can be created using a variety of irradiating species, including electrons, neutrons, protons, and ions. Koike et al. reported on the displacement threshold energy, T d , of type-IIa natural diamond using a transmission electron microscope (TEM) for three principal crystallographic directions, [100], [110], and [111].9 It was found that T d was 37-48 eV and the minimum incident-electron energy needs to be 180, 210, and 220 keV, respectively, for the [100], [111], and [110] orientations in order to form displacement-related defects. Steeds and co-workers demonstrated the creation of self-interstitials and carbon-carbon pairs along [100], using a 300 keV TEM. 10,11 Campbell and Mainwood predicted the radiation damage of diamond caused by both electron and gamma irradiation.12 Recent work has focused on proton and electron irradiation on diamond, studying the converted NV À and NV 0 concentrations for optical-magnetometer applications 8 as well as NV À formation using low-energy electrons. 13In this work, we used TEM irradiation of [100]-oriented nitrogen-rich type-Ib single-crystal bulk diamond. After irradiation, the vacancies are made mobile by annealing at approximately 700 C. The vacancies bind with a neutral substitutional nitrogen center, N 0 S , to form an NV À center as follows:The latter reaction assumes that a second nitrogen center serves as an ...

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Effects of low-energy electron irradiation on formation of nitrogen–vacancy centers in single-crystal diamond

Cited by 53 publications

References 40 publications

An Overview on the Formation and Processing of Nitrogen-Vacancy Photonic Centers in Diamond by Ion Implantation

An Overview on the Formation and Processing of Nitrogen-Vacancy Photonic Centers in Diamond by Ion Implantation

Enhanced concentrations of nitrogen-vacancy centers in diamond through TEM irradiation

Electron spin resonance shift and linewidth broadening of nitrogen-vacancy centers in diamond as a function of electron irradiation dose

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