Challenges
Datasets
Workspaces
Papers
Discussions
Leaderboard
Log inSign up
Challenges
Datasets
Workspaces
Papers
Discussions
Leaderboard
Blog
Job Board
Q3AS

© 2026 Aqora Quantum S.A.S.

TermsPrivacyLegal Notice

Bulletin of the American Physical Society

Quantum Defects in Diamond: Identifying Nitrogen Isotopes of Nitrogen-Vacancy Centers

Morgan Chamberlain, Srivatsa C Vardaraj, Zeeshawn Kazi, E. E. Roeder, Kai‐Mei C. Fu

Published Mar 2, 2020• 0 citations
OpenAlex

Abstract

Nitrogen-vacancy (NV) centers are point defects in diamond formed by one substitutional nitrogen atom and an adjacent vacancy. Low spectral diffusion is a necessary property for NV centers to be qubit candidates. To characterize differences between naturally formed and ion implanted NV centers, diamond samples were studied that contained both types. The ion implantation process used 15N to be able to differentiate from the 14N naturally formed NV centers. This project focused on identifying the isotope of a single NV center, which is the first step toward understanding differences in their emissive properties. Code was developed to execute, and then automate, the three experiments necessary to identify the isotope of a single NV center: Continuous Wave Optically Detected Magnetic Resonance (CW ODMR), Rabi oscillations, and Pulsed ODMR. The code was implemented on a test sample, where it successfully identified the isotope of several NV centers. The next step in this project is to link the isotope of NV centers to their emissive properties, with a goal of producing reliable qubits for quantum information processing circuits.

Related papers

Nitrogen vacancies (NV) centers in diamond for magnetic sensors and quantum sensing

Mayeul Chipaux, Stéphane Xavier, Alexandre Tallaire +6 more

Nitrogen Vacancy (NV) centers are point defects in diamond that allow magnetic field sensing based on Optically Detected Magnetic Resonance (ODMR). They are processed in ultrapure single-domain CVD grown diamond crystals and can be operated at room temperature. This results in solid-state sensors with a wide variety of applications. Ensemble of NV centers can be used to perform wide-field magnetic imaging with sensitivity in the nT range. Single NV centers can also be processed, which allows sensing at the atomic scale. This possibility, combined with its unique coherence properties, make NV center an ideal candidate for quantum sensing.

Proceedings of SPIE, the International Society for Optical Engineering/Proceedings of SPIE•Feb 8, 2015•3 citations

Generation and Characterization of NV Quantum Registers Using Isotopically Enriched Molecular Ions

Onoda Shinobu, Kimura Kosuke, Oguro Tsubasa +5 more

A nitrogen vacancy (NV) center in diamond is known as a solid-state spin quantum bit (qubit) at room temperature. The fabrication of scalable quantum registers based on NV centers is a long-standing issue. In 2005, spin-spin interaction between NV-N pairs, which were fabricated by N2 ion implantation, was reported. An entanglement between two electron-spin qubits becomes an excellent quantum information processing component, as accomplished by an NV-NV pair with a nanometer-scale distance in 2010 and 2013. More recently,strongly dipolar coupled NV-NV pairs were realized by 14N 30 keV implantationvia nanoholes in PMMA resist mask. The creation yields of NV-NV pairs dramatically improved, and the nanohole implantation had been thought to be the most promising technique to integrate NV centers. However, the problem of the technique is the finite size of nanoholes. The distribution of nitrogen atoms is determined by both ion straggling and nanohole diameter. The scaling of NV centers is stagnant up to two for several years. To overcome the barrier of triple NV centers, our previous research gave a ground-breaking idea of a highly populated NV center complex by introducing a molecular ion implantation technique in 2019. Since the molecular ion is regarded as an idea point source, the distribution of nitrogen atoms is determined by only ion straggling. Therefore, our proposed method is more effective than other implantation techniques including nanohole implantation. Instead of a pure nitrogen cluster which is commonly unstable, the stable organic molecular ions (adenine; C5N5H5) were utilized as the ion source. We successfully implanted C5N4Hn ions into single crystalline diamonds. Three NV centers were integrated, and the dipolar interactions among them were successfully observed. In 2022, we succeeded in creating more than 5 NV centers by phthalocyanine (C32H18N8) ion implantation. The next challenge is the implantation of isotopically enriched molecular ions. The isotopically enriched ion contains 13C and 15N. The implantation of isotopically enriched molecular ions is able to create 15NV-13C hybrid quantum registers. In this presentation, we will show the development of the isotopically enriched molecular ion beam and the characterization of created NV centers by laboratory-built confocal microscopy (CFM) and optically detected magnetic resonance (ODMR).

•Jul 7, 2025•0 citations

Optical coherence of diamond nitrogen-vacancy centers formed by ion implantation and annealing

Suzanne B. van Dam, Michael E. Walsh, Maarten J. Degen +8 more

Nitrogen-vacancy (NV) centers in diamond with coherent optical transitions are a promising candidate for quantum science and technology protocols. A widely used strategy for their creation is nitrogen-ion implantation and high-temperature annealing. The data presented in this work show that while low-strain, narrow-optical-linewidth NV centers are formed from naturally occurring ${}^{14}$N atoms, NV centers formed from the implanted ${}^{15}$N atoms show broadened optical transitions and experience higher strain. These results have immediate implications for the positioning accuracy of current NV center creation protocols.

arXiv:1812.11523•Physical review. B./Physical review. B•Apr 19, 2019•134 citations

Color Centers in Diamond Fabricated by Ion and Electron beam for Quantum Technologies

Onoda Shinobu

A nitrogen vacancy (NV) center, which is a luminescent point defect based on substitutional nitrogen and neighbouring vacancy, is the most studied color centers in diamond. NV center is known as a solidstate spin quantum bit (qubit) at room temperature. NV-qubit is widely utilized for quantum sensors and quantum information processing, etc. In this talk, the recent progress of color center fabrication by electron irradiation and ion implantation will be discussed.

•Sep 4, 2023•0 citations

Generation of Nitrogen-Vacancy Centers in Diamond with Ion Implantation

Jin‐Ming Cui, Xiang-Dong Chen, Lele Fan +5 more

Nitrogen-vacancy defect color centers are created in a high purity single crystal diamond by nitrogen-ion implantation. Both optical spectrum and optically detected magnetic resonance are measured for these artificial quantum emitters. Moreover, with a suitable mask, a lattice composed of nitrogen-vacancy centers is fabricated. Rabi oscillation driven by micro-waves is carried out to show the quality of the ion implantation and potential in quantum manipulation. Along with compatible standard lithography, such an implantation technique shows high potential in future to make structures with nitrogen-vacancy centers for diamond photonics and integrated photonic quantum chip.

Chinese Physics Letters•Mar 1, 2012•22 citations

Spectrally stable near-surface implanted nitrogen vacancy centers in diamond and the role of surface proximity

Srivatsa Chakravarthi, Christian Pederson, Zeeshawn Kazi +2 more

Scalable realizations of quantum network technologies utilizing the nitrogen vacancy center in diamond require creation of optically coherent NV centers in close proximity to a surface for coupling to optical structures. We create single NV centers by $^{15}$N ion implantation and high-temperature vacuum annealing. Origin of the NV centers is established by optically detected magnetic resonance spectroscopy for nitrogen isotope identification. Near lifetime-limited optical linewidths ($<$ 60 MHz) are observed for the majority of the normal-implant (7$^\circ$, $\approx$ 100 nm deep) $^{15}$NV centers. Long-term stability of the NV$^-$ charge state and emission frequency is demonstrated. The effect of NV-surface interaction is investigated by varying the implantation angle for a fixed ion-energy, and thus lattice damage profile. In contrast to the normal implant condition, NVs from an oblique-implant (85$^\circ$, $\approx$ 20 nm deep) exhibit substantially reduced optical coherence. Our results imply that the surface is a larger source of perturbation than implantation damage for shallow implanted NVs. This work supports the viability of ion implantation for formation of optically stable NV centers. However, careful surface preparation will be necessary for scalable defect engineering.

•May 20, 2021•0 citations
Nitrogen-vacancy (NV) centers are point defects in diamond formed by one substitutional nitrogen atom and an adjacent vacancy. Low spectral diffusion is a necessary property for NV centers to be qubit candidates. To characterize differences between naturally formed and ion implanted NV centers, diamond samples were studied that contained both types. The ion implantation process used 15N to be able to differentiate from the 14N naturally formed NV centers. This project focused on identifying the isotope of a single NV center, which is the first step toward understanding differences in their emissive properties. Code was developed to execute, and then automate, the three experiments necessary to identify the isotope of a single NV center: Continuous Wave Optically Detected Magnetic Resonance (CW ODMR), Rabi oscillations, and Pulsed ODMR. The code was implemented on a test sample, where it successfully identified the isotope of several NV centers. The next step in this project is to link the isotope of NV centers to their emissive properties, with a goal of producing reliable qubits for quantum information processing circuits.
Nitrogen Vacancy (NV) centers are point defects in diamond that allow magnetic field sensing based on Optically Detected Magnetic Resonance (ODMR). They are processed in ultrapure single-domain CVD grown diamond crystals and can be operated at room temperature. This results in solid-state sensors with a wide variety of applications. Ensemble of NV centers can be used to perform wide-field magnetic imaging with sensitivity in the nT range. Single NV centers can also be processed, which allows sensing at the atomic scale. This possibility, combined with its unique coherence properties, make NV center an ideal candidate for quantum sensing.
A nitrogen vacancy (NV) center in diamond is known as a solid-state spin quantum bit (qubit) at room temperature. The fabrication of scalable quantum registers based on NV centers is a long-standing issue. In 2005, spin-spin interaction between NV-N pairs, which were fabricated by N2 ion implantation, was reported. An entanglement between two electron-spin qubits becomes an excellent quantum information processing component, as accomplished by an NV-NV pair with a nanometer-scale distance in 2010 and 2013. More recently,strongly dipolar coupled NV-NV pairs were realized by 14N 30 keV implantationvia nanoholes in PMMA resist mask. The creation yields of NV-NV pairs dramatically improved, and the nanohole implantation had been thought to be the most promising technique to integrate NV centers. However, the problem of the technique is the finite size of nanoholes. The distribution of nitrogen atoms is determined by both ion straggling and nanohole diameter. The scaling of NV centers is stagnant up to two for several years. To overcome the barrier of triple NV centers, our previous research gave a ground-breaking idea of a highly populated NV center complex by introducing a molecular ion implantation technique in 2019. Since the molecular ion is regarded as an idea point source, the distribution of nitrogen atoms is determined by only ion straggling. Therefore, our proposed method is more effective than other implantation techniques including nanohole implantation. Instead of a pure nitrogen cluster which is commonly unstable, the stable organic molecular ions (adenine; C5N5H5) were utilized as the ion source. We successfully implanted C5N4Hn ions into single crystalline diamonds. Three NV centers were integrated, and the dipolar interactions among them were successfully observed. In 2022, we succeeded in creating more than 5 NV centers by phthalocyanine (C32H18N8) ion implantation. The next challenge is the implantation of isotopically enriched molecular ions. The isotopically enriched ion contains 13C and 15N. The implantation of isotopically enriched molecular ions is able to create 15NV-13C hybrid quantum registers. In this presentation, we will show the development of the isotopically enriched molecular ion beam and the characterization of created NV centers by laboratory-built confocal microscopy (CFM) and optically detected magnetic resonance (ODMR).
Nitrogen-vacancy (NV) centers in diamond with coherent optical transitions are a promising candidate for quantum science and technology protocols. A widely used strategy for their creation is nitrogen-ion implantation and high-temperature annealing. The data presented in this work show that while low-strain, narrow-optical-linewidth NV centers are formed from naturally occurring 14{}^{14}14N atoms, NV centers formed from the implanted 15{}^{15}15N atoms show broadened optical transitions and experience higher strain. These results have immediate implications for the positioning accuracy of current NV center creation protocols.
Nitrogen-vacancy defect color centers are created in a high purity single crystal diamond by nitrogen-ion implantation. Both optical spectrum and optically detected magnetic resonance are measured for these artificial quantum emitters. Moreover, with a suitable mask, a lattice composed of nitrogen-vacancy centers is fabricated. Rabi oscillation driven by micro-waves is carried out to show the quality of the ion implantation and potential in quantum manipulation. Along with compatible standard lithography, such an implantation technique shows high potential in future to make structures with nitrogen-vacancy centers for diamond photonics and integrated photonic quantum chip.
Scalable realizations of quantum network technologies utilizing the nitrogen vacancy center in diamond require creation of optically coherent NV centers in close proximity to a surface for coupling to optical structures. We create single NV centers by 15^{15}15N ion implantation and high-temperature vacuum annealing. Origin of the NV centers is established by optically detected magnetic resonance spectroscopy for nitrogen isotope identification. Near lifetime-limited optical linewidths (<<< 60 MHz) are observed for the majority of the normal-implant (7∘^\circ∘, ≈\approx≈ 100 nm deep) 15^{15}15NV centers. Long-term stability of the NV−^-− charge state and emission frequency is demonstrated. The effect of NV-surface interaction is investigated by varying the implantation angle for a fixed ion-energy, and thus lattice damage profile. In contrast to the normal implant condition, NVs from an oblique-implant (85∘^\circ∘, ≈\approx≈ 20 nm deep) exhibit substantially reduced optical coherence. Our results imply that the surface is a larger source of perturbation than implantation damage for shallow implanted NVs. This work supports the viability of ion implantation for formation of optically stable NV centers. However, careful surface preparation will be necessary for scalable defect engineering.