Coulomb-driven single defect engineering for scalable qubits and spin sensors in diamond

Area of Science:

• Quantum Information Science
• Materials Science
• Solid-State Physics

Background:

• Color centers in diamond are promising for solid-state quantum information processing and sensing.
• Deterministic qubit creation and environmental control remain challenges for room-temperature quantum computers.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop a method for high-yield creation of nitrogen-vacancy (NV) centers in diamond.
• To improve the spin coherence of NV centers.
• To enable deterministic control over qubit creation and charge state.

Main Methods:

• Employed charge-assisted defect engineering to enhance NV center formation.
• Utilized Coulomb-driven engineering to tune the charge state of implantation-induced vacancies (V0 to V-).
• Demonstrated the method's generality with various donors (P, O, S) and other centers (SnV, MgV).

Main Results:

• Achieved a 75% creation yield for NV centers, a tenfold enhancement over previous methods.
• Observed improved spin coherence of the engineered NV centers.
• Successfully hindered the formation of perturbing defects like di-vacancies and NVH complexes.

Conclusions:

• Charge-assisted defect engineering provides a pathway for deterministic creation of NV centers.
• This method significantly advances the development of room-temperature quantum computers and sensors.
• The technique is broadly applicable to various defect centers in diamond.