Fabrication of $^{15}\textrm{NV}^{-}$ centers in diamond using a deterministic single ion implanter

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates the deterministic implantation of single $^{15}$NV centers in diamond using a laser-cooled ion source, achieving precise placement and characterization for quantum technology applications.

Contribution

It introduces a method for creating $^{15}$NV centers with high spatial precision using a single ion implanter and laser cooling, with detailed characterization of the centers.

Findings

Implantation of $^{15}$N ions with 121 nm resolution.

Conversion efficiency of about 0.6%.

Successful optical and magnetic characterization of $^{15}$NV centers.

Abstract

Nitrogen Vacancy (NV) centers in diamond are a platform for several important quantum technologies, including sensing, communication and elementary quantum processors. In this letter we demonstrate the creation of NV centers by implantation using a deterministic single ion source. For this we sympathetically laser-cool single $^{15}\textrm{N}_2^+$ molecular ions in a Paul trap and extract them at an energy of 5.9\,keV. Subsequently the ions are focused with a lateral resolution of 121(35)\,nm and are implanted into a diamond substrate without any spatial filtering by apertures or masks. After high-temperature annealing, we detect the NV centers in a confocal microscope and determine a conversion efficiency of about 0.6\,$\%$. The $^{15}\textrm{NV}$ centers are characterized by optically detected magnetic resonance (ODMR) on the hyperfine transition and coherence time.