Impact of surface and laser-induced noise on the spectral stability of implanted nitrogen-vacancy centers in diamond

• Published in: Physical review. B 2021-08, Vol.104 (8), p.1, Article 085425
• Main Authors: Chakravarthi, Srivatsa, Pederson, Christian, Kazi, Zeeshawn, Ivanov, Andrew, Fu, Kai-Mei C.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Damage; Diamonds; Emission analysis; High temperature; Ion implantation; Lattice vacancies; Magnetic resonance spectroscopy; Nitrogen; Nitrogen isotopes; Perturbation; Surface preparation; Vacuum annealing
• ISSN: 2469-9950; 2469-9969
• DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevB.104.085425

Scalable realizations of quantum network technologies utilizing the nitrogen-vacancy (NV) center in diamond require creation of optically coherent NV centers in close proximity to a surface for coupling to optical structures. We create single NV centers by 15N ion implantation and high-temperature vacuum annealing. The origin of the NV centers is established by optically detected magnetic resonance spectroscopy for nitrogen isotope identification. Near-lifetime-limited optical linewidths ( < 60 MHz ) are observed for the majority of the normal-implant ( 7 ∘ , ≈ 100 nm deep) 15NV centers. Long-term stability of the NV − charge state and emission frequency is demonstrated. The effect of NV-surface interaction is investigated by varying the implantation angle for a fixed ion energy, and thus lattice damage profile. In contrast to the normal-implant condition, NVs from an oblique implant ( 85 ∘ , ≈ 20 nm deep) exhibit substantially reduced optical coherence. Our results imply that the surface is a larger source of perturbation than implantation damage for shallow implanted NVs. This work supports the viability of ion implantation for formation of optically stable NV centers. However, careful surface preparation will be necessary for scalable defect engineering.