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Title: Perfect alignment and preferential orientation of nitrogen-vacancy centers during chemical vapor deposition diamond growth on (111) surfaces

Abstract

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.

Authors:
; ; ; ; ; ;  [1];  [2]; ;  [3];  [4]
  1. 3rd Institute of Physics, Research Center SCoPE and IQST, University of Stuttgart, 70550 Stuttgart (Germany)
  2. Optical and Electronic Materials Unit, National Institute for Materials Science, 1-1 Namiki, Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305-0044 (Japan)
  3. Laser Physics Centre, Research School of Physics and Engineering, Australian National University, Australian Capital Territory 0200 (Australia)
  4. Research Center for Knowledge Communities, University of Tsukuba, 1-2 Kasuga, Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305-8550 (Japan)
Publication Date:
OSTI Identifier:
22257747
Resource Type:
Journal Article
Journal Name:
Applied Physics Letters
Additional Journal Information:
Journal Volume: 104; Journal Issue: 10; Other Information: (c) 2014 AIP Publishing LLC; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); Journal ID: ISSN 0003-6951
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Subject:
36 MATERIALS SCIENCE; CHEMICAL VAPOR DEPOSITION; COLOR CENTERS; CRYSTAL GROWTH; CRYSTAL GROWTH METHODS; CRYSTALLOGRAPHY; DIAMONDS; MICROWAVE RADIATION; NITROGEN

Citation Formats

Michl, Julia, Zaiser, Sebastian, Jakobi, Ingmar, Waldherr, Gerald, Dolde, Florian, Neumann, Philipp, Wrachtrup, Jörg, Teraji, Tokuyuki, Doherty, Marcus W., Manson, Neil B., and Isoya, Junichi. Perfect alignment and preferential orientation of nitrogen-vacancy centers during chemical vapor deposition diamond growth on (111) surfaces. United States: N. p., 2014. Web. doi:10.1063/1.4868128.
Michl, Julia, Zaiser, Sebastian, Jakobi, Ingmar, Waldherr, Gerald, Dolde, Florian, Neumann, Philipp, Wrachtrup, Jörg, Teraji, Tokuyuki, Doherty, Marcus W., Manson, Neil B., & Isoya, Junichi. Perfect alignment and preferential orientation of nitrogen-vacancy centers during chemical vapor deposition diamond growth on (111) surfaces. United States. https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4868128
Michl, Julia, Zaiser, Sebastian, Jakobi, Ingmar, Waldherr, Gerald, Dolde, Florian, Neumann, Philipp, Wrachtrup, Jörg, Teraji, Tokuyuki, Doherty, Marcus W., Manson, Neil B., and Isoya, Junichi. 2014. "Perfect alignment and preferential orientation of nitrogen-vacancy centers during chemical vapor deposition diamond growth on (111) surfaces". United States. https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4868128.
@article{osti_22257747,
title = {Perfect alignment and preferential orientation of nitrogen-vacancy centers during chemical vapor deposition diamond growth on (111) surfaces},
author = {Michl, Julia and Zaiser, Sebastian and Jakobi, Ingmar and Waldherr, Gerald and Dolde, Florian and Neumann, Philipp and Wrachtrup, Jörg and Teraji, Tokuyuki and Doherty, Marcus W. and Manson, Neil B. and Isoya, Junichi},
abstractNote = {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.},
doi = {10.1063/1.4868128},
url = {https://www.osti.gov/biblio/22257747}, journal = {Applied Physics Letters},
issn = {0003-6951},
number = 10,
volume = 104,
place = {United States},
year = {Mon Mar 10 00:00:00 EDT 2014},
month = {Mon Mar 10 00:00:00 EDT 2014}
}