The $N_{2}V$ color center: a ubiquitous visible and near-infrared-II quantum emitter in nitrogen-doped diamond

Abstract

Photoluminescent defects in diamond, like the nitrogen-vacancy (NV) color center, are at the forefront of emerging optical quantum technologies. Most emit in the visible and near-infrared spectral region below 1000 nm (NIR-I), limiting their applications in photonics, fiber communications, and biology. Here, we show that the nitrogen-vacancy-nitrogen ($N_{2}V$) center, which emits in the visible and near-infrared-II (NIR-II, 1000-1700 nm), is ubiquitous in as-synthesized and processed nitrogen-doped diamond from bulk samples to nanoparticles. We demonstrate that $N_{2}V$ is also present in commercially available state-of-the-art NV diamond sensing chips made via chemical vapor deposition (CVD). In high-pressure high-temperature (HPHT) diamonds, the photoluminescence (PL) intensity of both $N_{2}V$ charge states, $N_2{V}^0$ in the visible and $N_2{V}^{-}$ in the NIR-II, increases with increasing substitutional nitrogen concentration. We determine the PL lifetime of $N_2{V}^{-}$ to be 0.3 ns and compare a quantum optical and density functional theory model of the $N_2{V}^{-}$ with experimental PL spectra. Finally, we show that detonation nanodiamonds (DND) show stable PL in the NIR-II, which we attribute to the $N_{2}V$ color center, and use this NIR-II PL to image DNDs inside skin cells. Our results will contribute to the scientific and technological exploration and development of the $N_{2}V$ color center and inspire more research into its effect on other color centers in diamond.

References in corpus (12)

• High nitrogen-vacancy density diamonds for magnetometry applications
• Quantum networks based on color centers in diamond
• Decoherence of dipolar spin ensembles in diamond
• Measuring the quantum efficiency of single radiating dipoles using a scanning mirror
• NV- - N+ pair centre in 1b diamond
• Laser threshold magnetometry
• NV-centers in Nanodiamonds: How good they are
• A telecom O-band emitter in diamond
• Proximal nitrogen reduces the fluorescence quantum yield of nitrogen-vacancy centres in diamond
• Electron paramagnetic resonance of the ${\mathrm{N}}_2{\mathrm{V}}^{-}$ defect in ${}^{15}\mathrm{N}$-doped synthetic diamond
• \emph{Ab initio} theory of ${\text{N}}_2\text{V}$ defect as quantum memory in diamond
• An $\text{ab-initio}$ effective solid state photoluminescence by frequency constraint of cluster calculation

Cited by in corpus (1)

• Saturable absorption in defect-rich diamond nanophotonics