Optically Coherent Nitrogen-Vacancy Centers in HPHT Treated Diamonds

TL;DR

This paper presents a non-destructive high-pressure, high-temperature annealing method to produce optically coherent nitrogen-vacancy centers in diamond, enhancing their suitability for quantum technologies.

Contribution

It introduces a novel annealing process under high pressure and temperature that yields optically coherent NV centers with narrow linewidths, avoiding damage from destructive fabrication methods.

Findings

Produced NV centers with linewidths <100 MHz

High-pressure annealing prevents diamond graphitization

Method improves optical coherence of NV centers

Abstract

As a point defect with unique spin and optical properties, nitrogen-vacancy (NV) center in diamond has attracted much attention in the fields of quantum sensing, quantum simulation, and quantum networks. The optical properties of an NV center are crucial for all these quantum applications. However, NV centers fabricated by destructive methods such as electron irradiation or ion implantation usually exhibit poor optical coherence. In this work, we demonstrate a non-destructive method to fabricate optically coherent NV centers. High-purity single crystal diamonds are annealed under high pressure and high temperature (1700 $^{\circ}$C, 5.5 GPa), and individually resolvable NV centers with narrow PLE linewidth (<100 MHz) are produced. The high-pressure condition prevents the conversion of diamond to graphite during high-temperature annealing, significantly expanding the parameter space for creating high-performance artificial defects for quantum information science. These findings deepen our understanding of NV center formation in diamond and have implications for the optimization of color centers in solids, including silicon carbide and hexagonal boron nitride.