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Construction of femtosecond laser irradiation platform for creating quantum sensing devices

Ishino Masahiko, Thanhhung Dinh

Published Jul 24, 2024• 0 citations
OpenAlex

Abstract

Nitrogen-vacancy (NV) centers in diamond are expected to be quantum sensing devices such as magnetic and electric fields, temperature, pressure and so on. The generation of NV centers by irradiations of femtosecond laser pulses has been reported. Femtosecond laser can write NV centers in diamond directly and this direct writing can realize a flexible spatial arrangement of NV centers. As the application of the laser system, we have constructed the femtosecond laser irradiation platform for creating the quantum sensing device, such as NV centers. The femtosecond laser pulse is focused on a sample surface by an objective lens and laser pulse intensity is controlled by attenuators. By use of this irradiation apparatus, we have irradiated diamond samples to create NV centers. We could confirm several graphitization spots, but the signal intensity from NV center did not exist. To use the irradiation platform for creating NV centers in diamond, it needs some improvement, more increasing the repetition rate of irradiation laser and/or impurity nitrogen density in diamond sample.

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•Aug 24, 2022•0 citations
Nitrogen-vacancy (NV) centers in diamond are expected to be quantum sensing devices such as magnetic and electric fields, temperature, pressure and so on. The generation of NV centers by irradiations of femtosecond laser pulses has been reported. Femtosecond laser can write NV centers in diamond directly and this direct writing can realize a flexible spatial arrangement of NV centers. As the application of the laser system, we have constructed the femtosecond laser irradiation platform for creating the quantum sensing device, such as NV centers. The femtosecond laser pulse is focused on a sample surface by an objective lens and laser pulse intensity is controlled by attenuators. By use of this irradiation apparatus, we have irradiated diamond samples to create NV centers. We could confirm several graphitization spots, but the signal intensity from NV center did not exist. To use the irradiation platform for creating NV centers in diamond, it needs some improvement, more increasing the repetition rate of irradiation laser and/or impurity nitrogen density in diamond sample.
High-density nitrogen-vacancy (NV) centers exceeding 1016/cm3 inside a diamond can be achieved by femtosecond laser irradiation. The number of pulses and pulse energy were adjusted considering the increasing trend of the NV concentration and damage generation. The NV concentration first grew as the number of laser pulses was increased, and then the concentration was temporarily saturated or decreased. By increasing the number of laser pulses more than 2.5–5 × 107, the concentration increased again. The Hahn-echo measurement revealed that electron spins of the substitutional nitrogen center (P1) were dominant source for decoherence and the number of paramagnetic defects induced by the laser irradiation was not significant for degradation of spin coherence of the laser-induced NV centers even without a post-annealing process. Such high-dense ensemble NV centers are crucial for a high-sensitive quantum sensor.
Femtosecond laser writing and ion irradiation have been demonstrated as powerful fabrication tools for integrated quantum photonics in diamond in article no. 1900006. The figure depicts femtosecond laser inscription and ion beam irradiation in diamond, which can be applied separately, or potentially together, to accurately form nitrogen vacancy (NV) center defects within synthetic diamond. The nitrogen (shown as yellow sphere)–vacancy (shown as light pink sphere) color center defect in the tetrahedral lattice of carbons (shown as black spheres) has emerged as a suitable candidate for a qubit (represented by the Bloch sphere above the diamond) for quantum information and field sensing applications. In addition, the article highlights the latest results on laser and ion beam irradiation fabrication of integrated photonic and microfluidic components in diamond for interfacing with NV centers.
Diamond is a promising platform for sensing and quantum processing owing to the remarkable properties of the nitrogen-vacancy (NV) impurity. The electrons of the NV center, largely localized at the vacancy site, combine to form a spin triplet, which can be polarized with 532 nm laser light, even at room temperature. The NV's states are isolated from environmental perturbations making their spin coherence comparable to trapped ions. An important breakthrough would be in connecting, using waveguides, multiple diamond NVs together optically. However, still lacking is an efficient photonic fabrication method for diamond akin to the photolithographic methods that have revolutionized silicon photonics. Here, we report the first demonstration of three dimensional buried optical waveguides in diamond, inscribed by focused femtosecond high repetition rate laser pulses. Within the waveguides, high quality NV properties are observed, making them promising for integrated magnetometer or quantum information systems on a diamond chip.
Abstract Diamond has attracted great interest as a quantum technology platform thanks to its optically active nitrogen vacancy (NV) center. The NV's ground state spin can be read out optically, exhibiting long spin coherence times of ≈1 ms even at ambient temperatures. In addition, the energy levels of the NV are sensitive to external fields. These properties make NVs attractive as a scalable platform for efficient nanoscale resolution sensing based on electron spins and for quantum information systems. Diamond photonics enhance optical interactions with NVs, beneficial for both quantum sensing and information. Diamond is also compelling for microfluidic applications due to its outstanding biocompatibility, with sensing functionality provided by NVs. However, it remains a significant challenge to fabricate photonics, NVs, and microfluidics in diamond. In this Progress Report, an overview is provided of ion irradiation and femtosecond laser writing, two promising fabrication methods for diamond‐based quantum technological devices. The unique capabilities of both techniques are described, and the most important fabrication results of color center, optical waveguide, and microfluidics in diamond are reported, with an emphasis on integrated devices aiming toward high performance quantum sensors and quantum information systems of tomorrow.
We report on a novel method to fabricate single, multiple and large-area high-density ensembles of nitrogen vacancy (NV) color centers in synthetic type Ib bulk diamond by femtosecond laser illumination. Electron beams generated in propagation of intense infrared laser pulses in air sputtered on a diamond sample under high temperature aroused by the laser illumination, creating NV color centers. Typical photoluminescence (PL) spectra of NV centers could be observed on the illuminated spots. Photon streams from individual photoluminescent points exhibited anti-bunching effect by the second-order correlation measurement, evidencing single and multiple photon-emitters around the laser illuminated spots.
NV- center has been paid attention as a quantum sensor for highly sensitive detection of magnetic field, electric field, temperature and strain, etc.. Electron beam irradiation followed by subsequent thermal annealing is known as the effective procedures to create NV- center in diamond. The electron irradiation generates vacancies in diamond and the annealing enables vacancies to diffuse in the lattice. Then diffused vacancies are captured by nitrogen atoms, and as a result, NV centers are created. In addition, substitutional nitrogen atom at a lattice site (P1 center) also acts as a donor for NV center, the charge state of NV centers changes from neutral (NV0) to NV-. Creation high concentration of ensemble NV- centers is needed to achieve high sensitively sensing. The magnetic sensitivity is proportional to the reciprocal of the number of NV centers and T2 (spin coherence time), i.e., high concentration NV- centers with long T2 increase the sensitivity. P1 center has an important role for being a component of NV- centers and acting as donor to the NV center. But it also plays a role as decoherence source (decrease in magnetic field sensitivity). Therefore, it is important to create high concentration of NV- centers considering the amount of P1 centers. In current study, we investigate irradiation fluence dependence of the creation behavior of NV centers in type-Ib diamonds by using electron spin resonance (ESR) and photo-luminescence (PL) to understand the creation mechanism of NV- center. The values of T2 are also evaluated by Hahn-echo measurement, since it is one of the key parameters for highly sensitive magnetometry. Then, we discuss the creation mechanism of NV centers based on concentrations of defects.