Effect of a radical exposure nitridation surface on the charge stability of shallow nitrogen-vacancy centers in diamond

A nitridation process of a diamond surface with nitrogen radical exposure far from the radio-frequency plasma for the stabilization of a negatively charged nitrogen-vacancy (NV−) centers near the surface is presented. At a nitrogen coverage of as high as 0.9 monolayers, high average Rabi contrasts of 0.40 ± 0.06 and 0.46 ± 0.03 have been obtained for single NV− centers formed by shallow nitrogen implantation with acceleration voltages of 1 and 2 keV, respectively. This indicates that nitrogen termination by a radical exposure process produces an electric charge state suitable for single NV− centers near the surface compared with the states obtained for alternatively terminated surfaces.

[1]  J. Meijer,et al.  Nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy with single spin sensitivity , 2014, Nature Communications.

[2]  S. Shikata,et al.  Negatively charged nitrogen-vacancy centers in a 5 nm thin 12C diamond film. , 2013, Nano letters.

[3]  A. Hoffman,et al.  Nitrogen termination of single crystal (100) diamond surface by radio frequency N2 plasma process: An in-situ x-ray photoemission spectroscopy and secondary electron emission studies , 2015 .

[4]  Neil B. Manson,et al.  The nitrogen-vacancy colour centre in diamond , 2013, 1302.3288.

[5]  H. Kawarada,et al.  Charge state stabilization of shallow nitrogen vacancy centers in diamond by oxygen surface modification , 2017 .

[6]  Igor Aharonovich,et al.  Diamond-based single-photon emitters , 2011 .

[7]  S. Yamasaki,et al.  Charge state modulation of nitrogen vacancy centers in diamond by applying a forward voltage across a p–i–n junction , 2016 .

[8]  R. Schirhagl,et al.  Nitrogen-vacancy centers in diamond: nanoscale sensors for physics and biology. , 2014, Annual review of physical chemistry.

[9]  M. D. Lukin,et al.  Nuclear magnetic resonance detection and spectroscopy of single proteins using quantum logic , 2016, Science.

[10]  Y. Okada,et al.  Effects of Atomic Hydrogen on the Growth of GaN by RF-Molecular Beam Epitaxy , 1999 .

[11]  N. Chisholm,et al.  Magnetic resonance detection of individual proton spins using quantum reporters. , 2014, Physical review letters.

[12]  Yoshishige Suzuki,et al.  Pure negatively charged state of the NV center in n -type diamond , 2016 .

[13]  S. Prawer,et al.  Nitrogen Terminated Diamond , 2015 .

[14]  Charles S. Fadley,et al.  Angle-resolved x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy , 1984 .

[15]  M. Konuma,et al.  Effect of low-damage inductively coupled plasma on shallow nitrogen-vacancy centers in diamond , 2015, 1507.00890.

[16]  E. Kohn,et al.  Surface damages in diamond by Ar/O2 plasma and their effect on the electrical and electrochemical characteristics of boron-doped layers , 2010 .

[17]  Di Zhu,et al.  Amino-terminated diamond surfaces: Photoelectron emission and photocatalytic properties , 2016 .

[18]  M. Markham,et al.  Extending spin coherence times of diamond qubits by high-temperature annealing , 2013, 1309.4316.