Robust luminescence of the silicon-vacancy center in diamond at high temperatures

TL;DR

This study demonstrates that silicon-vacancy centers in diamond maintain significant luminescence and stability at high temperatures, making them promising for high-temperature light-emitting applications.

Contribution

It provides the first detailed high-temperature luminescence analysis of silicon-vacancy centers, revealing their robustness and potential for diamond-based devices.

Findings

Luminescence decreases by only 50% at 500 K and 75% at 700 K.

Silicon-vacancy centers are highly photostable above 800 K.

The observed reduction is due to a transition with 180 meV activation energy.

Abstract

We performed high-temperature luminescence studies of silicon-vacancy color centers obtained by ion implantation in single crystal diamond. We observed reduction of the integrated fluorescence upon increasing temperature, ascribable to a transition channel with an activation energy of 180 meV that populates a shelving state. Nonetheless, the signal decreased only 50% and 75% with respect to room temperature at 500 K and 700 K, respectively. In addition, the color center is found highly photostable at temperatures exceeding 800 K. The luminescence of this color center is thus extremely robust even at large temperatures and it holds promise for novel diamond-based light-emitting devices.