Ultrahigh nitrogen-vacancy center concentration in diamond

Abstract

High concentration of negatively charged nitrogen-vacancy (NV − ) centers was created in diamond single crystals containing approximately 100 ppm nitrogen using electron and neutron irradiation and subsequent thermal annealing in a stepwise manner. Continuous wave electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) was used to determine the transformation efficiency from isolated N atoms to NV − centers in each production step and its highest value was as high as 17.5 %. Charged vacancies are formed after electron irradiation as shown by EPR spectra, but the thermal annealing restores the sample quality as the defect signal diminishes. We find that about 25 % of the vacancies form NVs during the annealing process. The large NV − concentration allows to observe orientation dependent spin-relaxation times and also the determination of the hyperfine