Enhanced generation of single optically active spins in diamond by ion implantation

Abstract

The nitrogen-vacancy ͑NV͒ centers in diamond are amongst the most promising candidates for quantum information applications. Up to now the creation of such defects was highly probabilistic, requiring many copies of the nanodevice. Here we show that by employing a two step implantation process which includes low dose N 2 + molecular ion implantations followed by high dose C implantation can increase the generation efficiency of NV centers by over 50%. Moreover, we detected intrinsic 14 N concentration as low as 0.07 ppb by converting the nitrogen impurities into NV and then counting the single centers by using a confocal microscope.

On the relation between chemical composition and optical properties of detonation nanodiamonds

“…Due to their strong florescence, the NV centers are the key component in the DND-based quantum computing applications. The application of color centers in diamond relies on progress in quality control of diamond material and the ability of precise generation of defects [20][21][22].…”

Diamond nitrogen-vacancy centers created by scanning focused helium ion beam and annealing

“…25 Naydenov et al determined that co-implantation of carbon and nitrogen ions increases the NV À conversion efficiency to up to 50%. 24 Methods to implant nitrogen at the desired position using a focused nitrogen ion beam were also reported by Meijier et al 23 and Toyli et al 26 Besides introducing single vacancies, it is suspected that heavy ion bombardment introduces undesirable defects and impurities that might create charge traps or paramagnetic centers. Experiments typically find that NV centers formed from such a process suffer from increased optical spectral diffusion and degraded spin coherence properties.…”

“…22,28 Higher conversion efficiencies, up to 50%, have only been obtained with MeV nitrogen implantation energies 25 or with nitrogen and carbon co-implantation. 24 Next, we discuss the optical spectral linewidths for NV centers created using this method. Since sample (S1) has broad linewidths (0:2 nm) even for native NV centers, here we focus on sample (S2), in which the native NVinhomogeneous linewidths of the ZPL are as narrow as 0.04 nm.…”

“…For nanoscale magnetometry, near-surface NV centers will reduce the sensor-sample distance, thereby improving spatial resolution and sensitivity. [18][19][20][21] The most commonly used technique to create NV centers near a surface is implantation of nitrogen ions followed by annealing at 900 C. [22][23][24] Rabeau et al reported a creation yield of 2.5% for the optically detectable NV À centers per implanted nitrogen (N) ion. 22 Pezzagna et al investigated a wide range of nitrogen implantation energies from 5 keV to 18 MeV and gave the dependence of the NV yield on the ion energies.…”

Nanoscale Sensing Using Point Defects in Single-Crystal Diamond: Recent Progress on Nitrogen Vacancy Center-Based Sensors

“…In this section, we discuss how N δ-doping [47,51] and ion implantation [52,75,76] or electron irradiation [50] can lead to improved spin coherence. Figure 4 summarizes recently obtained T 2 values for different methods and works.…”