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Nanoscale Engineering and Optical Addressing of Single Spins in Diamond

Sébastien Pezzagna, Dominik Wildanger, Paul Mazarov, Andreas Dirk Wieck, Yanko E. Sarov, Ivo W. Rangelow, Boris Naydenov, Fedor Jelezko, Stefan W. Hell, Jan Meijer

Published Sep 3, 2010• 117 citations
Publisher

Abstract

The artificial creation of shallow nitrogen-vacancy (NV) centres in diamond with 25 nm lateral resolution is performed by collimated implantation of low-energy nitrogen ions. The electron spin associated to this defect is the most promising qubit for a scalable quantum computer working at room temperature. Individual optical addressing of two single centres separated by only 16 nm is demonstrated with stimulated emission depletion (STED) microscopy.

DOI
10.1002/smll.201000902

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The artificial creation of shallow nitrogen-vacancy (NV) centres in diamond with 25 nm lateral resolution is performed by collimated implantation of low-energy nitrogen ions. The electron spin associated to this defect is the most promising qubit for a scalable quantum computer working at room temperature. Individual optical addressing of two single centres separated by only 16 nm is demonstrated with stimulated emission depletion (STED) microscopy.
The aim of this proposal is to demonstrate the key elements needed to construct a logical qubit in diamond by exploiting the remarkable quantum properties of the nitrogen-vacancy (NV) optical centre. Specifically, the focus of the work was to address the materials and fabrication issues. We have demonstrated (i) that individual NV qubits can be fabricated by ion implantation with long coherence times (>350 microseconds at room temperature), (ii) electrical control of the optical output of each individual centre is achievable via the Stark shift, (iii) coherent population trapping of ensembles and single NV centres allowing for all-optical control of qubit operations and (iv) that waveguides, cavities and photonic band-gap structures can be fabricated in single crystal diamond. We have thus demonstrated a nanofabrication tool-kit for diamond which is sufficiently robust and mature to justify future investment in the design and implementation of a scalable quantum computing architecture for diamond.
Coherently coupled pairs or multimers of nitrogen-vacancy defect electron spins in diamond have many promising applications especially in quantum information processing (QIP) but also in nanoscale sensing applications. Scalable registers of spin qubits are essential to the progress of QIP. Ion implantation is the only known technique able to produce defect pairs close enough to allow spin coupling via dipolar interaction. Although several competing methods have been proposed to increase the resulting resolution of ion implantation, the reliable creation of working registers is still to be demonstrated. The current limitation are residual radiation-induced defects, resulting in degraded qubit performance as trade-off for positioning accuracy. Here we present an optimized estimation of nanomask implantation parameters that are most likely to produce interacting qubits under standard conditions. We apply our findings to a well-established technique, namely masks written in electron-beam lithography, to create coupled defect pairs with a reasonable probability. Furthermore, we investigate the scaling behavior and necessary improvements to efficiently engineer interacting spin architectures.
Fluorescent nitrogen vacancies (NV) in diamond have drawn much interest because of their potential for computation and quantum cryptography, as well as for nanoscale magnetic imaging and biolabeling due to their special spin and fluorescence properties. However, their optical detection and control is compromised by the diffraction resolution barrier of far-field optics. We showed that stimulated emission depletion (STED) microscopy is capable of imaging NV centres with nanoscale resolution and Ångström precision using focused visible light [1].
We discuss how Very Large Scale Integration (VLSI) fabrication techniques can be used to build scalable solid-state quantum computers in diamond with either room temperature operation, or low temperature operation with photonic control. For this discussion we consider nitrogen-vacancy (NV) color centers where the qubits are electron and/or nuclear spins. To achieve scalability the NV centers are placed in well-defined locations using ion implantation, and are controlled using optical and/or microwave excitation as well as localized static electric and/or magnetic fields.
A huge variety of optical colour centres can be found in diamond, emitting in its whole wide transparency range. Although several of these centres have been demonstrated as single-photon emitters, none of them meets all of the requirements of an ideal single-photon source. In this view, we discuss the properties of prominent optical centres, such as the nitrogen vacancy, the silicon vacancy or the so-called NE8 centre, as well as recently found centres ascribed to defects containing Ni, Si, Cr and Xe. Besides suitable intrinsic properties, it is necessary for practical applications that optical centres can be created artificially on demand. Of all known methods, only ion implantation allows for the most controlled creation of such defect centres. In this paper, we discuss how nanoscalability, that is, the nanometre placement and the deterministic creation of optical centres, can, could or cannot be achieved by the available ion implantation techniques. A fine analysis of individual optical centres is now possible, thanks to the recently developed subdiffraction optical microscopy methods.
Abstract The negatively charged nitrogen-vacancy centre (so-called NV-centre) in diamond is one of the most promising systems for applications in quantum technologies because of the possibility to optically manipulate and read out the spin state of this defect, even at room temperature. Nevertheless, obtaining high NV densities (>500 ppb) close to the surface (5–20 nm) while maintaining good spin properties remain challenging. In this work we rely on a versatile ion implantation system allowing both implanting nitrogen using N 2 + and creating vacancies with He + ion bombardment at variable energies and fluence to create shallow NV ensembles. By optimizing the ion irradiation conditions as well as the surface preparation prior to treatment we successfully increase the amount of created colour centres while demonstrating narrow magnetic resonance linewidths.