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arXiv · 2007.12469

Efficient Conversion of Nitrogen to Nitrogen-Vacancy Centers in Diamond Particles with High-Temperature Electron Irradiation

Yuliya Mindarava·Rémi Blinder·Christian Laube·Wolfgang Knolle·Bernd Abel·Christian Jentgens·Junichi Isoya·Jochen Scheuer·Johannes Lang·Ilai Schwartz·Boris Naydenov·Fedor Jelezko
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Abstract

Fluorescent nanodiamonds containing negatively-charged nitrogen-vacancy (NV$^-$) centers are promising for a wide range of applications, such as for sensing, as fluorescence biomarkers, or to hyperpolarize nuclear spins. NV$^-$ centers are formed from substitutional nitrogen (P1 centers) defects and vacancies in the diamond lattice. Maximizing the concentration of NVs is most beneficial, which justifies the search for methods with a high yield of conversion from P1 to NV$^-$. We report here the characterization of surface cleaned fluorescent micro- and nanodiamonds, obtained by irradiation of commercial diamond powder with high-energy (10 MeV) electrons and simultaneous annealing at 800{\deg}C. Using this technique and increasing the irradiation dose, we demonstrate the creation of NV$^-$ with up to 25 % conversion yield. Finally, we monitor the creation of irradiation-induced spin-1 defects in microdiamond particles, which we associate with W16 and W33 centers, and investigate the effects of irradiation dose and particle size on the coherence time of NV$^-$.

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Yuliya Mindarava, Rémi Blinder, Christian Laube, Wolfgang Knolle, Bernd Abel, Christian Jentgens, Junichi Isoya, Jochen Scheuer, Johannes Lang, Ilai Schwartz, Boris Naydenov, Fedor Jelezko. 2020-07-24. Efficient Conversion of Nitrogen to Nitrogen-Vacancy Centers in Diamond Particles with High-Temperature Electron Irradiation. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.carbon.2020.07.077

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