Direct formation of nitrogen-vacancy centers in nitrogen doped diamond along the trajectories of swift heavy ions

TL;DR

This study demonstrates the formation of nitrogen-vacancy centers in nitrogen-doped diamond along swift heavy ion tracks, revealing their preferential formation in electronic stopping regions and potential for quantum applications.

Contribution

It provides the first depth-resolved analysis of NV center formation along swift heavy ion tracks in nitrogen-doped diamond, highlighting the role of electronic stopping and annealing effects.

Findings

NV centers form preferentially in electronic stopping regions

Thermal annealing increases NV yields in high vacancy regions

Potential for creating quasi-1D NV qubit chains with nanometer spacing

Abstract

We report depth-resolved photoluminescence measurements of nitrogen-vacancy (NV$^-$) centers formed along the tracks of swift heavy ions (SHIs) in type Ib synthetic single crystal diamonds that had been doped with 100 ppm nitrogen during crystal growth. Analysis of the spectra shows that NV$^-$ centers are formed preferentially within regions where electronic stopping processes dominate and not at the end of the ion range where elastic collisions lead to formation of vacancies and defects. Thermal annealing further increases NV yields after irradiation with SHIs preferentially in regions with high vacancy densities. NV centers formed along the tracks of single swift heavy ions can be isolated with lift-out techniques for explorations of color center qubits in quasi-1D registers with an average qubit spacing of a few nanometers and of order 100 color centers per micrometer along 10 to 30 micrometer long percolation chains.