No Arabic abstract
The neutrally-charged silicon vacancy in diamond is a promising system for quantum technologies that combines high-efficiency, broadband optical spin polarization with long spin lifetimes (T2 ~ 1 ms at 4 K) and up to 90% of optical emission into its 946 nm zero-phonon line. However, the electronic structure of SiV0 is poorly understood, making further exploitation difficult. Performing photoluminescence spectroscopy of SiV0 under uniaxial stress, we find the previous excited electronic structure of a single 3A1u state is incorrect, and identify instead a coupled 3Eu - 3A2u system, the lower state of which has forbidden optical emission at zero stress and so efficiently decreases the total emission of the defect: we propose a solution employing finite strain to form the basis of a spin-photon interface. Isotopic enrichment definitively assigns the 976 nm transition associated with the defect to a local mode of the silicon atom.
The negatively-charged silicon-vacancy (SiV$^-$) center in diamond is a promising single photon source for quantum communications and information processing. However, the centers implementation in such quantum technologies is hindered by contention surrounding its fundamental properties. Here we present optical polarization measurements of single centers in bulk diamond that resolve this state of contention and establish that the center has a $langle111rangle$ aligned split-vacancy structure with $D_{3d}$ symmetry. Furthermore, we identify an additional electronic level and evidence for the presence of dynamic Jahn-Teller effects in the centers 738 nm optical resonance.
We performed high-temperature luminescence studies of silicon-vacancy color centers obtained by ion implantation in single crystal diamond. We observed reduction of the integrated fluorescence upon increasing temperature, ascribable to a transition channel with an activation energy of 180 meV that populates a shelving state. Nonetheless, the signal decreased only 50% and 75% with respect to room temperature at 500 K and 700 K, respectively. In addition, the color center is found highly photostable at temperatures exceeding 800 K. The luminescence of this color center is thus extremely robust even at large temperatures and it holds promise for novel diamond-based light-emitting devices.
The nitrogen-vacancy (NV) center in diamond is a widely-utilized system due to its useful quantum properties. Almost all research focuses on the negative charge state (NV$^-$) and comparatively little is understood about the neutral charge state (NV$^0$). This is surprising as the charge state often fluctuates between NV$^0$, and NV$^-$, during measurements. There are potentially under utilized technical applications that could take advantage of NV$^0$, either by improving the performance of NV$^-$, or utilizing NV$^0$, directly. However, the fine-structure of NV$^0$, has not been observed. Here, we rectify this lack of knowledge by performing magnetic circular dichroism (MCD) measurements that quantitatively determine the fine-structure of NV$^0$. The observed behavior is accurately described by spin-Hamiltonians in the ground and excited states with the ground state yielding a spin-orbit coupling of $lambda = 2.24 pm 0.05$ GHz and a orbital $g-$factor of $0.0186 pm 0.0005$. The reasons why this fine-structure has not been previously measured are discussed and strain-broadening is concluded to be the likely reason
We demonstrate optical spin polarization of the neutrally-charged silicon-vacancy defect in diamond ($mathrm{SiV^{0}}$), an $S=1$ defect which emits with a zero-phonon line at 946 nm. The spin polarization is found to be most efficient under resonant excitation, but non-zero at below-resonant energies. We measure an ensemble spin coherence time $T_2>100~mathrm{mu s}$ at low-temperature, and a spin relaxation limit of $T_1>25~mathrm{s}$. Optical spin state initialization around 946 nm allows independent initialization of $mathrm{SiV^{0}}$ and $mathrm{NV^{-}}$ within the same optically-addressed volume, and $mathrm{SiV^{0}}$ emits within the telecoms downconversion band to 1550 nm: when combined with its high Debye-Waller factor, our initial results suggest that $mathrm{SiV^{0}}$ is a promising candidate for a long-range quantum communication technology.
Optical and microwave double resonance techniques are used to obtain the excited state structure of single nitrogen-vacancy centers in diamond. The excited state is an orbital doublet and it is shown that it can be split and associated transition strengths varied by external electric fields and by strain. A group theoretical model is developed. It gives a good account of the observations and contributes to an improved understanding of the electronic structure of the center. The findings are important for quantum information processing and other applications of the center.