Quantum embedding study of strain and charge induced Stark effects on the NV$^{-}$ center in diamond

TL;DR

This study uses quantum embedding to analyze how strain and charge affect the Stark effects on the NV$^{-}$ center in diamond, revealing detailed energy shifts, state splittings, and dipole properties relevant for quantum sensing.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive many-body quantum description of strain and charge effects on NV$^{-}$ centers, including energy shifts, state splittings, and dipole moments, advancing understanding of their quantum properties.

Findings

Strain longitudinal to NV axis shifts excited states.

Transverse strain splits degeneracies of $^{3}E$ and $^{1}E$ states.

Permanent dipole moment of 1.64 D at zero strain.

Abstract

The NV$^{-}$ color center in diamond has been demonstrated as a powerful nanosensor for quantum metrology due to the sensitivity of its optical and spin properties to external electric, magnetic, and strain fields. In view of these applications, we use quantum embedding to derive a many-body description of strain and charge induced Stark effects on the NV$^{-}$ center. We quantify how strain longitudinal to the axis of NV$^{-}$ shifts the excited states in energy, while strain with a component transverse to the NV$^{-}$ axis splits the degeneracies of the $^{3}E$ and $^{1}E$ states. The largest effects are for the optically relevant $^{3}E$ manifold, which splits into $E_{x}$ and $E_{y}$ with transverse strain. From these responses we extract strain susceptibilities for the $E_{x/y}$ states within the quasi-linear regime. Additionally, we study the many-body dipole matrix elements of the NV$^{-}$ and find a permanent dipole 1.64 D at zero strain, which is somewhat smaller than that obtained from recent density functional theory calculations. We also determine the transition dipole between the $E_{x}$ and $E_{y}$ and how it evolves with strain.