Tunable and Transferable Diamond Membranes for Integrated Quantum Technologies
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- Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois 60615, United States
- Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois 60615, United States, Center for Molecular Engineering and Materials Science Division, Argonne National Laboratory, Lemont, Illinois 60439, United States
- Department of Physics, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois 60615, United States
- Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois 60615, United States, Center for Molecular Engineering and Materials Science Division, Argonne National Laboratory, Lemont, Illinois 60439, United States, Department of Physics, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois 60615, United States
Color centers in diamond are a leading platform in quantum networking and sensing due to their exceptional coherence times, robust spin–photon interfaces, and controllable interactions with local nuclear- and reporter-spin registers. Color centers have been utilized in many landmark experimental demonstrations, including deterministic entanglement, multinode quantum networking, nanoscale NMR spectroscopy, and memory-enhanced quantum key distribution. These advances can be accelerated into scalable technologies with the ability to create high-quality, nanoscale-thick diamond membranes as elements in hybrid devices. Ideally, in the next generation of quantum technology, diamond will simply be another functional layer in heterostructures that can include nonlinear/magnetic/acoustic materials, on-chip detectors, superconductors, nanophotonics, and microfluidics. Such improved integration can increase entanglement efficiency, master control of phonons and photons, enable on-chip frequency conversion, improve interfaces with other quantum systems and sensing targets, and create new opportunities to engineer quantum states. However, the material properties of diamond create fundamental difficulties for heterostructure integration. Specifically, high-quality, single crystal heteroepitaxial growth of diamond thin films remains challenging despite recent progress. In response, a variety of processing and integration schemes have been developed to derive low dimensional structures out of bulk diamond. While promising, a scalable, high-yield approach that enables full heterostructure-like integration of diamond while maintaining bulk-like properties—specifically, crystallinity, surface roughness, and color center coherence—is still lacking. Here, we report the efficient synthesis and manipulation of ultrathin diamond membranes suitable for next-generation applications in quantum information science (QIS). Our membrane fabrication procedure is based on a “smart-cut” technique, in which He+ implantation creates a subsurface graphitized layer that can be electrochemically (EC) etched, in conjuncture with a plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PE-CVD) overgrowth optimized for the synthesis of high-quality, in situ doped, and isotopically purified diamond. The process allows detachment of arbitrarily large diamond membranes with smooth interfaces without relying on reactive-ion-etching (RIE) undercut processes. While previous works have demonstrated the effectiveness of “smart-cut” and overgrowth for diamond membrane creation, our process realizes three critical advancements to the state-of-the-art. First, we demonstrate isotopically controlled and nitrogen δ-doped diamond membrane structures with atomically flat surfaces and high crystal quality showing unprecedentedly narrow Raman line widths. (28,29) Second, we demonstrate a novel dry-transfer technique which enables clean and deterministic membrane placement on arbitrary substrates. Membranes transferred in this way are free from premature detachment and unwieldy curvatures caused by built-in strain between the graphitized and overgrown layers. (30) As such, these membranes can be integrated with other material platforms and functional structures. Third, we report that these structures, even at thickness ≤150 nm, are suitable hosts for germanium vacancy (GeV–) and nitrogen vacancy (NV–) centers created via implantation (in both cases) and overgrowth (NV– only). Specifically, we show that the GeV– centers exhibit stable and coherent emission at 5.4 K, while the NV– centers show bulk-like spin coherence properties at room temperature. Additionally, we demonstrate that doping of other group IV color centers such as silicon-vacancy (SiV–) and tin-vacancy (SnV–) is also viable.
- Research Organization:
- Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES); National Science Foundation (NSF); USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES). Materials Sciences & Engineering Division
- Grant/Contract Number:
- AC02-06CH11357; DMR-2011854; DGE-1746045; ECCS-2025633
- OSTI ID:
- 1835425
- Alternate ID(s):
- OSTI ID: 1868549
- Journal Information:
- Nano Letters, Journal Name: Nano Letters Vol. 21 Journal Issue: 24; ISSN 1530-6984
- Publisher:
- American Chemical SocietyCopyright Statement
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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