Electron spin contrast of high-density and perfectly aligned nitrogen-vacancy centers synthesized by chemical vapor deposition

Nitrogen-vacancy (NV) centers in diamonds provide a high-sensitivity magnetometer. We investigated the spin properties of high-density and perfectly aligned NV centers grown using the chemical vapor deposition method by varying the nitrogen concentration. Basically, the optical initialization and spin-dependent fluorescence are determined by intersystem crossing (ISC) in the excited state. In this study, we found that nitrogen impurities lead to a non-radiative and spin-mixing decay working as a competitive pathway against the ISC, using time-resolved fluorescence analysis. Our results will elucidate NV-defect interaction, which significantly contributes to the quality of the quantum material.

Automated summary

Nitrogen-vacancy (NV) centers in diamonds grown using the chemical vapor deposition method were studied to investigate their spin properties by varying nitrogen concentration. It was found that nitrogen impurities affect fluorescence decay, impacting the intersystem crossing (ISC) process.