Skip to content

Photoluminescence Studies of Both the Neutral and Negatively Charged Nitrogen-Vacancy Center in Diamond

MetadataDetails
Publication Date2016-01-13
JournalMicroscopy and Microanalysis
AuthorsKaiyue Wang, J. W. Steeds, Zhihong Li, Yuming Tian
InstitutionsTaiyuan University of Science and Technology, University of Bristol
Citations20

Abstract In this study low temperature micro-photoluminescence technology was employed to investigate effects of the irradiation and nitrogen concentration on nitrogen-vacancy (NV) luminescence, with the photochromic and vibronic properties of the NV defects. Results showed that the NV luminescence was weakened due to recombination of self-interstitials created by electron irradiation in diamond and the vacancies within the structure of NV centers. For very pure diamond, the vacancies migrated the long distance to get trapped by N atoms only after sufficient high temperature annealing. As with the increase in nitrogen content, the migration distance of vacancies got smaller. The nitrogen also favored the formation of negatively charged NV centers with the donating electrons. Under the high-energy ultraviolet laser excitation, the photochromic property of the NV āˆ’ center was also observed, though it was not stable. Besides, the NV centers showed very strong broad sidebands, and the vibrations involved one phonon with energy of ~42 meV and another with ~67 meV energy.