Optical and spin properties of nitrogen vacancy centers in diamond formed along high-energy heavy ion tracks

Liu, Wei; Leino, Aleksi; A. M.; Persaud, Arun; Ji, Qing; Jhuria, Kaushalya; Barnard, Edward S.; Aloni, Shaul; Trautmann, Christina; Tomut, Marilena; Wunderlich, Ralf; Nozais, Chloé; Mogan, Saahit; Ocker, Hunter; Anand, Nishanth; Hao, Zhao; Djurabekova, Flyura; Schenkel, Thomas

Abstract

Exposure of matter to high-energy heavy ions induces defects along the ion trajectories through electronic and nuclear energy loss processes. Defects, including color centers, can recombine or form along latent damage tracks in semiconductors. Latent tracks in diamond were only recently observed. Here we report on color center formation in nitrogen-doped diamond along the latent tracks of 1 GeV gold and uranium ions. We optically observe direct formation of single vacancy related color centers (GR1-centers) along the tracks. Mobile vacancies can form NV-centers with native nitrogen atoms during thermal annealing. Molecular dynamics simulations show that isolated vacancies and vacancy clusters form through electronic stopping processes along ion trajectories. Moreover, by using 1 GeV Au ions with a dilute fluence, we create individually isolated quasi-1D chains of NV-centers, which appear as isolated bright luminescence strings and present competitive electron spin properties compared to a background of NV-centers. Such spin textures can be building blocks for applications in quantum sensing and computing.