Luminescence lifetimes of neutral nitrogen-vacancy centres in synthetic diamond containing nitrogen

Abstract

The decay time of luminescence from neutral nitrogen-vacancy (NV(0)) centres in synthetic diamond is reported. The intrinsic luminescence lifetime of NV (0) is measured as τ(r) = 19 ± 2 ns. Neutral substitutional nitrogen atoms (N(S)(0)) are shown to quench luminescence from NV(0) by dipole-dipole resonant energy transfer at a rate such that the transfer time would equal τ(r) if one (N(S)(0)) atom was ~3 nm from the NV(0). In chemical-vapour-deposited diamonds grown with a small nitrogen content, that are brown as a result of vacancy-cluster defects, the decay time of NV(0) equals τ(r) in the as-grown material. However, after annealing at ≥1700 °C to remove the brown colour, luminescence from the NV(0) centres is severely quenched. This effect is suggested to be a result of the destruction of NV(0) centres and the creation of new NV(0) centres localized in vacancy-rich regions of the crystals.

Systematic study of defect-related quenching of NV luminescence in diamond with time-correlated single-photon counting spectroscopy

“…(1) while a radiative lifetime for NV − centers of (12 ± 1 ns) was taken from the literature, 46 the radiative lifetime for NV 0 centers was directly measured in an optical-grade N-implanted sample, yielding a value of (17 ± 1 ns), in satisfactory agreement with the literature; 47 (2) the dipole-dipole resonant energy transfer was successfully applied to model the measured decay times of NV 0 and NV − centers in different experimental conditions, allowing the determination of empirical parameter k and accounting for the strength of the nonradiative coupling between the PL centers under investigation and native/induced defects in the samples; (3) in frontally implanted samples, the variation of the k parameter was reported as a function of ion-induced defect density for both NV 0 and NV − emissions: while a nonmonotonic variation was observed for NV 0 emission, a logarithmic increase of k vs damage density was found for NV − emission for damage levels exceeding a critical threshold determined by the background nitrogen concentration; the data relevant to NV − emission were quantitatively analyzed; (4) in laterally implanted samples, it was possible to map the evolution of the PL lifetime across the sample thickness, thus obtaining direct evidence of the effects of the strongly nonuniform damage profile; the experimental data exhibited a good agreement with numerical prediction based on SRIM simulations combined with the results of the quantitative analysis carried out for frontally implanted samples; (5) in regions implanted at the lowest fluences, a linear dependence was identified between native nitrogen substitutional concentration independently measured by FTIR spectroscopy and the k value; this allowed the attribution of the quenching of NV − emission primarily to nitrogen, although other kinds of native defects cannot be ruled out in principle.…”

“…In a subsequent work, also the dipole-dipole resonant energy transfer from NV 0 centers to neutral substitutional nitrogen was investigated in detail. 47 Several previous works report extensively about the effect on the intensity of NV centers of structural defects induced from neutron, 58 electron, 59 and ion 16 irradiation, and it is natural to assume that also the center lifetime is affected by radiation-induced damage. While a 2-MeV electron irradiation at a fluence of 2 × 10 18 cm −2 does not seem to have significant effects on the center lifetime, 40 in the present work we report a systematic investigation on the effect of ion implantation on NV center lifetime in samples characterized by different substitutional nitrogen concentrations.…”

“…The obtained value represents one of the few estimations of radiative lifetime in NV 0 centers available in literature, in satisfactory agreement with previous results. 47 …”

“…45,46 Photoluminescence (PL) lifetime mapping measurements with a time-correlated single-photon counting (TCSPC) technique proved to be an effective tool to investigate the quenching mechanisms of NV − and NV 0 centers. 40,47 In the present paper, we report a systematic study on the variation of the lifetime of NV (i.e., NV − and NV 0 ) centers as a function of ion-induced damage density in artificial high-pressure high-temperature (HPHT) diamonds with different nitrogen concentrations, performed with a TCSPC microspectroscopy technique.…”

Multimode Jahn-Teller effect in bulk systems: A case of the NV0 center in diamond

“…2(a) of Ref. [36]. Photoluminescence studies also show that the vibrations of NV 0 involve one phonon with an energy of 42 meV [37].…”