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Lookup NU author(s): Claire Meara, Dr Mark Rayson, Professor Patrick Briddon, Professor Jon Goss
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0).
© 2019 American Physical Society.A quantum-chemical study of the positive charge-state of the nitrogen-vacancy center in diamond is presented. Charge control of this promising qubit candidate is a focus of diamond quantum technology research, as currently charge stability relating to surfaces and nearby defects causes some difficulties for quantum applications. To demonstrate full charge control over the nitrogen vacancy, all three charge states should be identified and the processes that lead to charge state changes understood. However, experimental markers for the positive state remain elusive compared to the readily detectable zero-phonon lines of the neutral and negative. In this work we present predicted hyperfine and zero-field splitting tensors as clear signatures of the normally spinless NV+(A11 ground state) by probing a long-lived spin-triplet excited-state ∼0.7 eV above the NV+ ground state. We find a relatively narrow excitation energy range of approximately 0.7-1.1 eV between excitation into an E3 state and conversion into the neutral charge state. To provide insight into the thermal stability of the positive charge state, we have calculated binding and diffusion energies for both charged and uncharged systems. We predict, given that the activation energies are only weakly charge state dependent, all three charge states would diffuse in the 1600-1900°C range, but the positive state has a significantly lower binding energy, suggesting that it will dissociate at temperatures around 1000°C rather than migrate.
Author(s): Meara CJ, Rayson MJ, Briddon PR, Goss JP
Publication type: Article
Publication status: Published
Journal: Physical Review B
Year: 2019
Volume: 100
Issue: 10
Print publication date: 01/09/2019
Online publication date: 10/09/2019
Acceptance date: 02/04/2019
Date deposited: 04/12/2019
ISSN (print): 2469-9950
ISSN (electronic): 2469-9969
Publisher: American Physical Society
URL: https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.100.104108
DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevB.100.104108
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