The neutral silicon-vacancy center in diamond: spin polarization and lifetimes

Abstract

We demonstrate optical spin polarization of the neutrally-charged silicon-vacancy defect in diamond ($\mathrm{Si}{\mathrm{V}}^0$), 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 $T_2>100\mu \mathrm{s}$ 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 $\mathrm{Si}{\mathrm{V}}^0$ and $\mathrm{N}{\mathrm{V}}^{-}$ within the same optically-addressed volume, and $\mathrm{Si}{\mathrm{V}}^0$ emits within the telecoms downconversion band to 1550 nm: when combined with its high Debye-Waller factor, our initial results suggest that $\mathrm{Si}{\mathrm{V}}^0$ is a promising candidate for a long-range quantum communication technology.

References in corpus (4)

• Coherence of Nitrogen-Vacancy Electronic Spin Ensembles in Diamond
• Broadband Magnetometry and Temperature Sensing with a Light Trapping Diamond Waveguide
• The negatively charged nitrogen-vacancy centre in diamond: the electronic solution
• State-selective intersystem crossing in nitrogen-vacancy centers

Cited by in corpus (3)

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• Effect of phonons on the electron spin resonance absorption spectrum