Localized nitrogen-vacancy centers generated by low-repetition rate fs-laser pulses

Oncebay C.; Almeida J.M.P.; Almeida G.F.B.; Muniz S.R.; Mendonca C.R. · Diamond and Related Materials (2022) · DOI: 10.1016/j.diamond.2022.109426

Resumen

Among hundreds of impurities and defects in diamond, the nitrogen-vacancy (NV) center is one of the most interesting to be used as a platform for quantum technologies and nanosensing. Traditionally, synthetic diamond is irradiated with high-energy electrons or nitrogen ions to generate these color-centers. For precise positioning of the NV centers, fs-laser irradiation has been proposed as an alternative approach to produce spatially localized NV centers in diamond. However, most of the studies reported so far used high-repetition rate fs-laser systems. Here, we studied the influence of the irradiation conditions on the generation of NV−. Specifically, we varied pulse fluence, laser focusing, and the number of pulses upon irradiation with 150 fs pulses at 775 nm from a Ti:sapphire laser amplifier operating at 1 kHz repetition rate. Optically Detected Magnetic Resonance (ODMR) was used to investigate the produced NV centers, revealing a sizeable zero-field splitting in the spectra and indicating the conditions in which the lattice strain produced in the ablation process may be deleterious for quantum information applications.

Instituciones: Universidad Nacional de Ingeniería