Perfect alignment and preferential orientation of nitrogen-vacancy centers during chemical vapor deposition diamond growth on (111) surfaces

Synthetic diamond production is a key to the development of quantum metrology and quantum information applications of diamond. The major quantum sensor and qubit candidate in diamond is the nitrogen-vacancy (NV) color center. This lattice defect comes in four different crystallographic orientations...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Applied physics letters 2014-03, Vol.104 (10)
Main Authors: Michl, Julia, Teraji, Tokuyuki, Zaiser, Sebastian, Jakobi, Ingmar, Waldherr, Gerald, Dolde, Florian, Neumann, Philipp, Doherty, Marcus W., Manson, Neil B., Isoya, Junichi, Wrachtrup, Jörg
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Alignment
Applied physics
CHEMICAL VAPOR DEPOSITION
COLOR CENTERS
Crystal defects
CRYSTAL GROWTH
CRYSTAL GROWTH METHODS
CRYSTALLOGRAPHY
DIAMONDS
Inhomogeneity
Lattice vacancies
MATERIALS SCIENCE
Metrology
Microwave plasmas
MICROWAVE RADIATION
NITROGEN
Organic chemistry
Quantum phenomena
Quantum sensors
Quantum theory
Qubits (quantum computing)
Substrates
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Summary:Synthetic diamond production is a key to the development of quantum metrology and quantum information applications of diamond. The major quantum sensor and qubit candidate in diamond is the nitrogen-vacancy (NV) color center. This lattice defect comes in four different crystallographic orientations leading to an intrinsic inhomogeneity among NV centers, which is undesirable in some applications. Here, we report a microwave plasma-assisted chemical vapor deposition diamond growth technique on (111)-oriented substrates, which yields perfect alignment (94% ± 2%) of as-grown NV centers along a single crystallographic direction. In addition, clear evidence is found that the majority (74% ± 4%) of the aligned NV centers were formed by the nitrogen being first included in the (111) growth surface and then followed by the formation of a neighboring vacancy on top. The achieved homogeneity of the grown NV centers will tremendously benefit quantum information and metrology applications.
ISSN:0003-6951
1077-3118
DOI:10.1063/1.4868128