Identifying and Mitigating Charge Instabilities in Shallow Diamond Nitrogen-Vacancy Centers

The charge degree of freedom in solid-state defects fundamentally underpins the electronic spin degree of freedom, a workhorse of quantum technologies. Here we measure, analyze, and control charge-state behavior in individual near-surface nitrogen-vacancy (NV) centers in diamond, where NV-hosts the metrologically relevant electron spin. We find that NV-initialization fidelity varies between individual centers and over time; we alleviate the deleterious effects of reduced NV-initialization fidelity via logic-based initialization. Importantly, we also show that NV-can ionize in the dark on experimentally relevant timescales, and we introduce measurement protocols that mitigate the compromising effects of charge conversion on spin measurements. We identify tunneling to a single local electron trap as the mechanism for ionization in the dark, and we develop novel NV-assisted techniques to control and read out the trap charge state. Our understanding and command of the NV's local electrostatic environment will simultaneously guide materials design and provide unique functionalities with NV centers.