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Electric Noise Spectra of a Near-Surface Nitrogen-Vacancy Center in Diamond with a Protective Layer

MetadataDetails
Publication Date2018-12-21
JournalPhysical Review Applied
AuthorsPhilip Chrostoski, H. R. Sadeghpour, D. H. Santamore
InstitutionsCenter for Astrophysics Harvard & Smithsonian, Delaware State University
Citations19

Surface noise is a detrimental issue for sensing devices based on shallow\nnitrogen vacancy (NV) color center diamonds. A recent experiment indicates that\nelectric field noise is significant compared to magnetic field noise. They also\nfound that the electric field noise can be reduced with a protective surface\nlayer, though the mechanism of noise reduction is not well understood. We\nexamine the effect of a protective surface layer on the noise spectrum, which\nis caused by surface charge fluctuations. We use the fluctuation-dissipation\ntheorem to calculate and analyze the noise spectrum for six different surface\nlayer materials typically used for NV center diamond devices. We find that four\nparameters largely affect the noise spectrum: effective relaxation time,\neffective loss tangent, power law exponent of the noise spectrum, and layer\nthickness. Our results suggest that a surface covering layer is indeed useful\nfor decreasing surface noise, but which material is most suitable depends on\nthe device operational frequency range.\n