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Applied Physics Express

Array of bright silicon-vacancy centers in diamond fabricated by low-energy focused ion beam implantation

Syuto Tamura, Godai Koike, Akira Komatsubara, Tokuyuki Teraji, Shinobu Onoda, Liam Paul McGuinness, Lachlan J. Rogers, Boris Naydenov, E Wu, Liu Yan, Fedor Jelezko, Takeshi Ohshima, Junichi Isoya, Takahiro Shinada, Takashi Tanii

Published Oct 15, 2014• 90 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Among promising color centers for single-photon sources in diamond, the negatively charged silicon-vacancy (SiV − ) has 70% of its emission to the zero-phonon line (ZPL), in contrast to the negatively charged nitrogen vacancy (NV − ), which has a broad spectrum. Fabricating single centers of useful defect complexes with high yield and excellent grown-in defect properties by ion implantation has proven to be challenging. We have fabricated bright single SiV − centers by 60-keV focused ion beam implantation and subsequent annealing at 1000 °C with high positioning accuracy and a high yield of 15%.

DOI
10.7567/apex.7.115201

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Among promising color centers for single-photon sources in diamond, the negatively charged silicon-vacancy (SiV − ) has 70% of its emission to the zero-phonon line (ZPL), in contrast to the negatively charged nitrogen vacancy (NV − ), which has a broad spectrum. Fabricating single centers of useful defect complexes with high yield and excellent grown-in defect properties by ion implantation has proven to be challenging. We have fabricated bright single SiV − centers by 60-keV focused ion beam implantation and subsequent annealing at 1000 °C with high positioning accuracy and a high yield of 15%.
Silicon-vacancy (SiV) centers in diamond are gaining an increased interest for application, such as in quantum technologies and sensing. Due to the strong luminescence concentrated in its sharp zero-phonon line at room temperature, SiV centers are being investigated as single-photon sources for quantum communication, and also as temperature probes for sensing. Here, we discussed strategies for the fabrication of SiV centers in diamond based on Si-ion implantation followed by thermal activation. SiV color centers in high-quality single crystals have the best optical properties, but polycrystalline micro and nanostructures are interesting for applications in nano-optics. Moreover, we discuss the photoluminescence properties of SiV centers in phosphorous-doped diamond, which are relevant for the creation of electroluminescent devices, and nanophotonics strategies to improve the emission characteristics of the SiV centers. Finally, the optical properties of such centers at room and high temperatures show the robustness of the center and give perspectives for temperature-sensing applications.
The charged silicon vacancy (SiV – ) color center in diamond can be created by focused ion beam (FIB) implantation, allowing deterministic creation of single photon emitters. Here, we create FIB-implanted SiV – color centers in a diamond substrate spanning 8 orders of magnitude of the ion beam fluence. We show that the SiV – zero-phonon line (ZPL) brightness at 4 K is constant with increasing ion beam fluence, while exhibiting slight inhomogeneous broadening. The temperature-dependent ZPL line shift revealed a blue-shift below 70 K that we attribute to the negative thermal expansion of diamond, showing the SiV – ability as a sensitive probe of its host crystal environment. We demonstrate a versatile line shift model constructed on the basis of the Grüneisen parameter description of the thermal expansion coefficient and the electron–phonon interaction.
Abstract Silicon vacancy (SiV) centers in diamonds have attracted much attention because of their stability and narrow emission linewidth, and are promising for applications in quantum information technology. SiV-center-encapsulated nanodiamonds have also attracted much attention because of their potential to be coupled to various photonic devices. One efficient way to fabricate nanodiamonds that contain SiV centers is Si ion implantation into nanodiamonds. However, the evaluation of a single SiV center in a nanodiamond produced by this method at low temperatures has not been performed. In this study, we report on the optical properties of a single SiV center in a nanodiamond produced by ion implantation at cryogenic temperatures. The emission spectrum from a single SiV center ( g 2 ( 0 ) = 0.19 ) was observed with four distinct fine splittings of the zero-phonon line (ZPL) at 4 K. At an excitation power of 50 μ W, the full width at half maximum of the ZPL reached the spectrometer resolution limit (0.09 nm). The temperature dependence of the emission peak is consistent with that of the emission coming from an SiV center under high strain. The results obtained in this work suggest that nanodiamonds containing single SiV centers formed using this method will be an important building block for the realization of quantum information applications.
The negatively-charged nitrogen-vacancy (NV) center is the most studied optical center in diamond and is very important for applications in quantum information science. Many proposals for integrating NV centers in quantum and sensing applications rely on their tailored fabrication in ultra pure host material. In this study, we use ion implantation to controllably introduce nitrogen into high purity, low nitrogen chemical vapor deposition diamond samples. The properties of the resulting NV centers are studied as a function of implantation temperature, annealing temperature, and implantation fluence. We compare the implanted NV centers with native NV centers present deep in the bulk of the as-grown samples. The results for implanted NV centers are promising but indicate, at this stage, that the deep native NV centers possess overall superior optical properties. In particular, the implanted NV centers obtained after annealing at 2000 °C under a stabilizing pressure of 8 GPa showed an ensemble linewidth of 0.17 nm compared to 0.61 nm after annealing at 1000 °C. Over the same temperature range, the ensemble NV−/NV0 ratio increased by a factor of ∼5, although this was accompanied by an overall decrease in the NV count.
The creation of single, negatively charged silicon vacancy (SiV−) centers in well-defined diamond layers close to the host surface is a crucial step for the development of diamond-based quantum optic devices with many applications in nanophotonics, quantum sensing, or quantum information science. Here, we report on the creation of shallow (10 nm below the surface), single SiV− centers in diamond using low energy Si+ ion implantation with subsequent high temperature annealing at 1500 °C. We show transition linewidths down to 99 MHz and narrow inhomogeneous distributions. Furthermore, we achieved a reduction of homogeneous linewidths by a factor of 2 after removing subsurface damage using oxygen plasma processing. These results not only give insights into the formation process of SiV− centers but also indicate a favorable processing method to fabricate shallow single quantum emitters in diamond perfectly suited for coupling to nanostructures on the diamond surface.
Negatively charged germanium vacancy centers (GeV) in diamond are a promising platform for quantum computing and quantum communication. However, these applications require the precise incorporation of GeV centers with good optical properties inside of nanophotonic structures. In this work, we demonstrate the highly efficient local creation of GeV centers in diamond via focused-ion-beam implantation, followed by high-temperature annealing. We report the successful creation of GeV centers over the depth range of 5.5 - 30 nm. Implantation at low fluence enables the creation of single GeV centers. The formation yield strongly depends on implantation energy and fluence, reaching up to 33% at energies of 35 and 70 keV. This method, therefore, enables the efficient creation of GeV centers within a small, well-defined local sample volume and offers a potential means of incorporating them into photonic structures.