Nitrogen isotope effects on boron vacancy quantum sensors in hexagonal boron nitride

TL;DR

This study explores how nitrogen isotope variations in hexagonal boron nitride affect boron vacancy quantum sensors, revealing isotope-dependent magnetic resonance properties and guiding future sensor design.

Contribution

It is the first to analyze nitrogen isotope effects on V$_ ext{B}$ defects in hBN for quantum sensing applications.

Findings

Nitrogen isotope composition influences magnetic resonance spectra.

Hyperfine interaction for $^{15}$N is measured at 64 MHz.

Raman shifts scale with reduced mass, consistent with prior work.

Abstract

There has been growing interest in studying hexagonal boron nitride (hBN) for quantum technologies. Here, we investigate nitrogen isotope effects on boron vacancy (V$_\text{B}$) defects, one of the candidates for quantum sensors, in $^{15}$N isotopically enriched hBN synthesized using a metathesis reaction. The Raman shifts are scaled with the reduced mass, consistent with previous work on boron isotope enrichment. We obtain nitrogen isotopic composition-dependent magnetic resonance spectra of V$_\text{B}$ defects and determine the magnitude of the hyperfine interaction parameter of $^{15}$N spin to be 64 MHz. Our investigation provides a design policy for hBNs for quantum sensing.