Optical charge state manipulation of lead-vacancy centers in diamond

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates control over the charge states of lead-vacancy centers in diamond using multi-color laser irradiation, enabling improved spin manipulation for quantum technologies.

Contribution

It introduces a method for tuning the charge state of PbV centers, crucial for their application as spin qubits in quantum information processing.

Findings

Achieved up to 89% population of the negatively charged state.

Proposed a charge cycle between neutral and negatively charged states.

Enabled potential spin control of the neutral PbV center.

Abstract

Group-IV vacancy centers in diamond exhibit excellent optical and spin coherence properties, making them highly promising and scalable spin qubit candidates. Since only specific charge states are magneto-optically active, control over the charge state is fundamental for quantum applications. Here, we realize the charge state control of lead-vacancy centers (PbV) through multi-color laser irradiation. We achieve tunable population manipulation of the negatively charged state from 0 to 89%, paving the way for spin control of the negatively charged PbV center. Furthermore, through analysis of charge state dynamics, we propose a charge cycle between the neutral and negatively charged states, indicating a possible pathway to the neutral PbV center with a spin-1 system.