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HL: Fachverband Halbleiterphysik
HL 4: Carbon: Diamond, Nanotubes, and Graphene
HL 4.3: Talk
Monday, March 14, 2011, 10:45–11:00, POT 251
Controlling the charge state of nitrogen-vacancy centers in diamond — •Moritz Hauf1, Bernhard Grotz2, Boris Naydenov2, Markus Dankerl1, Magalí Ros1, Fedor Jelezko2, Jörg Wrachtrup2, Martin Stutzmann1, Friedemann Reinhard2, and José Garrido1 — 1Walter Schottky Institut, TU München, Garching — 23rd Physics Institute, University of Stuttgart
Nitrogen-vacancy defects (NV) in the diamond lattice have been extensively studied as they can act as single photon emitters with absolute photo-stability. Furthermore, they have found applications in novel fields like quantum computation and single spin magnetometry. In this context, it is of great interest to understand the effect of diamond surface termination and gain control over the charge state of NV centers in diamond. We have shown that by changing the diamond surface termination from oxygen to hydrogen, the fluorescence of the negatively charged NV (NV−) can be suppressed, depending on the implantation energy and dose used for the creation of NV centers in diamond by low-energy nitrogen implantation. This effect is attributed to the band bending that occurs at hydrogen-terminated diamond surfaces. A two-dimensional hole gas is formed at the surface, converting the NV− to either neutral or even positively charged NV centers. Self-consistent numerical simulations can reproduce the surface band bending and the concurrent disappearance of the NV− fluorescence. Finally, we have demonstrated that electrostatic control of the charge state of single NV centers can be achieved by using surface-conductive diamond devices and an external gate electrode.