Physical review. B, Condensed matter
Paramagnetic resonance of photoexcited N-Vdefects in diamond. I. Level anticrossing in the 3 Aground state
Xing-Fei He, Neil B. Manson, Peter Fisk
Abstract
Raman-heterodyne-detected paramagnetic resonance has been used to study the level anticrossing in the $^{3}$A state of the N-V defect in diamond. The electron-paramagnetic-resonance (EPR) frequencies are well accounted for by a triplet-spin Hamiltonian. Comparison of the EPR spectra with the calculated transition dipole strengths indicates that optical pumping determines, to a large extent, the Raman-heterodyne-signal intensity. Spin alignment in the $^{3}$A ground state under optical pumping leads to the collapse of the EPR signal at the level anticrossing, where the population is equalized due to the mixing of the spin states. This is substantiated by transient nutation and spin-echo measurements, from which the dipole moment and dephasing time are examined. Laser detuning within the 638-nm zero-phonon line shows that the Raman signal is only detectable when the laser frequency is tuned to the low-energy part of the optical line.