Perfect alignment and preferential orientation of nitrogen-vacancy centers during chemical vapor deposition diamond growth on (111) surfaces
- 3rd Institute of Physics, Research Center SCoPE and IQST, University of Stuttgart, 70550 Stuttgart (Germany)
- Optical and Electronic Materials Unit, National Institute for Materials Science, 1-1 Namiki, Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305-0044 (Japan)
- Laser Physics Centre, Research School of Physics and Engineering, Australian National University, Australian Capital Territory 0200 (Australia)
- Research Center for Knowledge Communities, University of Tsukuba, 1-2 Kasuga, Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305-8550 (Japan)
Synthetic diamond production is a key to the development of quantum metrology and quantum information applications of diamond. The major quantum sensor and qubit candidate in diamond is the nitrogen-vacancy (NV) color center. This lattice defect comes in four different crystallographic orientations leading to an intrinsic inhomogeneity among NV centers, which is undesirable in some applications. Here, we report a microwave plasma-assisted chemical vapor deposition diamond growth technique on (111)-oriented substrates, which yields perfect alignment (94% ± 2%) of as-grown NV centers along a single crystallographic direction. In addition, clear evidence is found that the majority (74% ± 4%) of the aligned NV centers were formed by the nitrogen being first included in the (111) growth surface and then followed by the formation of a neighboring vacancy on top. The achieved homogeneity of the grown NV centers will tremendously benefit quantum information and metrology applications.
- OSTI ID:
- 22257747
- Journal Information:
- Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 104, Issue 10; Other Information: (c) 2014 AIP Publishing LLC; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0003-6951
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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