Generation of Tin-Vacancy Centers in Diamond via Shallow Ion Implantation and Subsequent Diamond Overgrowth

• Published in: Nano letters 2020-03, Vol.20 (3), p.1614-1619
• Main Authors: Rugar, Alison E, Lu, Haiyu, Dory, Constantin, Sun, Shuo, McQuade, Patrick J, Shen, Zhi-Xun, Melosh, Nicholas A, Vučković, Jelena
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: MATERIALS SCIENCE
• ISSN: 1530-6984; 1530-6992
• DOI: 10.1021/acs.nanolett.9b04495

Group IV color centers in diamond have garnered great interest for their potential as optically active solid-state spin qubits. The future utilization of such emitters requires the development of precise site-controlled emitter generation techniques that are compatible with high-quality nanophotonic devices. This task is more challenging for color centers with large group IV impurity atoms, which are otherwise promising because of their predicted long spin coherence times without a dilution refrigerator. For example, when applied to the negatively charged tin-vacancy (SnV–) center, conventional site-controlled color center generation methods either damage the diamond surface or yield bulk spectra with unexplained features. Here we demonstrate a novel method to generate site-controlled SnV– centers with clean bulk spectra. We shallowly implant Sn ions through a thin implantation mask and subsequently grow a layer of diamond via chemical vapor deposition. This method can be extended to other color centers and integrated with quantum nanophotonic device fabrication.