Nitrogen-vacancy defects in diamond produced by femtosecond laser nanoablation technique

A strategy for nitrogen-vacancy (NV) center production in diamond under its irradiation by 266-nm femtosecond laser pulses is suggested: NV centers can be effectively and controllably created in the regime of nanoablation of a diamond surface. The NV concentration was found to increase logarithmically with the laser pulse number in the nanoablation regime, which is realized at a laser fluence of <0.6 J/cm(2), whereas the NV formation rate was proportional to the sixth power of laser fluence. These dependencies could be explained by the photolytic mechanism of vacancy formation on the diamond surface and their subsequent laser-stimulated diffusion in the bulk. The femtosecond laser nanoablation of the diamond surface was demonstrated to be a promising tool to produce the requisite number of vacancies near the diamond surface and, hence, to manage the formation of NV complexes. Published by AIP Publishing.