Effect of fluorinated diamond surface on charge state of nitrogen-vacancy centers

TL;DR

This study demonstrates that fluorine-terminated diamond surfaces increase the population of negatively charged nitrogen-vacancy centers, which is crucial for enhancing quantum sensing and information applications.

Contribution

It shows that fluorination via CF4 plasma effectively controls the charge state of NV centers, improving their negatively charged population compared to oxygen termination.

Findings

Fluorination increases NV- population on diamond surfaces.

Surface chemistry manipulation affects NV charge states.

Enhanced NV- density benefits quantum applications.

Abstract

We investigated the effect of fluorine-terminated diamond surface on the charged state of shallow nitrogen vacancy defect centers (NVs). Fluorination is achieved with CF4 plasma and the surface chemistry is confirmed with x-ray photoemission spectroscopy. Photoluminescence of these ensemble NVs reveal that fluorine-treated surfaces lead to a higher negatively charged nitrogen vacancy (NV-) population than oxygen-terminated surfaces. Using surface chemistry to control NV charges, in particular increasing the density of NV- centers, is an important step towards improving the optical and spin properties of NVs for quantum information processing and magnetic sensing.