Localized Nitrogen-Vacancy centers generated by low-repetition rate fs-laser pulses

TL;DR

This study explores how low-repetition rate fs-laser pulses can be used to generate localized nitrogen-vacancy centers in diamond, with implications for quantum technology applications.

Contribution

It demonstrates the effects of irradiation parameters using a 1 kHz fs-laser system on NV center creation, an area less studied compared to high-repetition rate systems.

Findings

NV$^-$ centers can be generated with low-repetition rate fs-laser pulses.

Lattice strain effects influence the quality of NV centers.

Optimal irradiation conditions minimize lattice damage.

Abstract

Among hundreds of impurities and defects in diamond, the nitrogen-vacancy (NV) center is one of the most interesting to be used as a platform for quantum technologies and nanosensing. Traditionally, synthetic diamond is irradiated with high-energy electrons or nitrogen ions to generate these color-centers. For precise positioning of the NV centers, fs-laser irradiation has been proposed as an alternative approach to produce spatially localized NV centers in diamond. However, most of the studies reported so far used high-repetition rate fs-laser systems. Here, we studied the influence of the irradiation conditions on the generation of NV$^-$. Specifically, we varied pulse fluence, laser focusing, and the number of pulses upon irradiation with 150 fs pulses at 775 nm from a Ti:sapphire laser amplifier operating at 1 kHz repetition rate. Optically Detected Magnetic Resonance (ODMR) was used to investigate the produced NV centers, revealing a sizeable zero-field splitting in the spectra and indicating the conditions in which the lattice strain produced in the ablation process may be deleterious for quantum information applications.