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arXiv · 2307.16072

Charge-State Stability of Color Centers in Wide-Bandgap Semiconductors

Rodrick Kuate Defo·Alejandro W. Rodriguez·Steven L. Richardson
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Abstract

The NV$^-$ color center in diamond has been extensively investigated for quantum sensing, computation, and communication applications. Nonetheless, charge-state decay from the NV$^-$ to its neutral counterpart the NV$^0$ detrimentally affects the robustness of the NV$^-$ center and remains to be fully overcome. In this work, we provide an $ab~initio$ formalism for accurately estimating the rate of charge-state decay of color centers in wide-bandgap semiconductors. Our formalism employs density functional theory calculations in the context of thermal equilibrium. We illustrate the method using the transition of NV$^-$ to NV$^0$ in the presence of substitutional N [see Z. Yuan $et~al$., PRR 2, 033263 (2020)].

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Rodrick Kuate Defo, Alejandro W. Rodriguez, Steven L. Richardson. 2023-07-29. Charge-State Stability of Color Centers in Wide-Bandgap Semiconductors. https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevb.108.235208

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