Scalable, nanoscale positioning of highly coherent color centers in prefabricated diamond nanostructures

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates a scalable method for creating highly coherent nitrogen-vacancy centers in diamond nanostructures with nanoscale precision, improving yield and coherence for quantum applications.

Contribution

It introduces a combined nitrogen delta-doping and localized electron irradiation technique for precise, high-yield NV center placement in prefabricated nanostructures.

Findings

Achieved ~4 nm depth and 46 nm lateral positioning precision.

Formed single NV centers with long coherence times (~98 μs).

Increased NV formation yield and photoluminescence compared to traditional methods.

Abstract

Nanophotonic devices in color center-containing hosts provide efficient readout, control, and entanglement of the embedded emitters. Yet control over color center formation - in number, position, and coherence - in nanophotonic devices remains a challenge to scalability. Here, we report a controlled creation of highly coherent diamond nitrogen-vacancy (NV) centers with nanoscale three-dimensional localization in prefabricated nanostructures with high yield. Combining nitrogen $\delta$-doping during chemical vapor deposition diamond growth and localized electron irradiation, we form shallow NVs registered to the center of diamond nanopillars with wide tunability over NV number. We report positioning precision of ~ 4 nm in depth and 46(1) nm laterally in pillars (102(2) nm in bulk diamond). We reliably form single NV centers with long spin coherence times (average $T_2^{Hahn}$ = 98 $\mu s$) and 1.8x higher average photoluminescence compared to NV centers randomly positioned in pillars. We achieve a 3x improved yield of NV centers with single electron-spin sensitivity over conventional implantation-based methods. Our high-yield defect creation method will enable scalable production of solid-state defect sensors and processors.