Scalable nanoscale positioning of highly coherent color centers in prefabricated diamond nanostructures
Sunghoon Kim, Paz London, Daipeng Yang, Lillian B. Hughes, Jeffrey Ahlers, Simon Meynell, William J. Mitchell, Kunal Mukherjee, Ania C. Bleszynski Jayich
Nanophotonic devices in color center-containing hosts provide efficient readout, control, and entanglement of the embedded emitters. Yet control over color center formation – in number, position, and coherence – in nanophotonic devices remains a challenge to scalability. Here, we report a controlled creation of highly coherent diamond nitrogen-vacancy (NV) centers with nanoscale three-dimensional localization in prefabricated nanostructures with high yield. Combining nitrogen δ -doping during chemical vapor deposition diamond growth and localized electron irradiation, we form shallow NVs registered to the center of diamond nanopillars with wide tunability over NV number. We report a positioning precision of ~ 4 nm in depth and 46(1) nm laterally in 280 nm-diameter pillars (102(2) nm in bulk diamond). We reliably form single NV centers with long spin coherence times (average ${T}_{2}^{Hahn}=98\, \mu {{{\rm{s}}}}$ T 2 H a h n = 98 μ s ) and higher average photoluminescence compared to NV centers randomly positioned in pillars. Our method can improve the performance of various NV-based devices. In the realm of magnetic sensing, we achieve a 3 × improved yield of NV centers with single electron-spin sensitivity over conventional implantation-based methods. Our high-yield defect creation method will enable scalable production of solid-state defect sensors and processors.
Figures
15 panels with data across 4 figures. Each panel page shows the plot, its columns and its files; each data.csv begins with a header naming the paper, the panel, the source, the license and the provenance route.
Fig. 1
Illustrative figure, no extractable data. Shown in the paper PDF.
Fig. 2
panel (1): Average number of created NVs per spot against electron dose (e$^-$/cm$^2$), log-log, in 280 nm pillars (purple), 480 nm pillars (teal) and mesas (red). Circles are measurements with 95% confidence intervals; diamonds are MC simulations, with dotted fitted curves as a guide to the eye. The confocal image insets are not hosted. data.csv
Fig. 3
panel (b): Radial PL profiles (kcps) against radial distance from the target position (nm) for six doses, $1.6\times10^{19}$ to $4.8\times10^{21}$ e$^-$/cm$^2$, offset 100 kcps each. Points, standard errors, solid 2D Gaussian fits, red dashed $\sqrt{\sigma_{\mathrm{PSF}}^2+\sigma_{\mathrm{sys}}^2}$ Gaussians. The points and curves differ from the print, most at the lowest dose; the $r = 0$ point is shown. data.csv
panel (c): Lateral positioning precision $\sigma_{\mathrm{loc}}$ (nm) in the mesas against dose (e$^-$/cm$^2$), red circles with 95% confidence intervals, and a red dotted line at their average. Horizontal lines: MC simulations of $\sigma_{\mathrm{loc}}^{\mathrm{pillar}}$ in $\delta$-e$^-$-irradiated 280 and 480 nm pillars (solid) and the analytic values without localization (dashed). data.csv
Fig. 4
panel (a): Histogram of the Hahn-echo coherence time $T_2^{\mathrm{Hahn}}$ ($\mu$s) of 12 NVs in 280 and 480 nm pillars irradiated with $1.6\times10^{20}$ e$^-$/cm$^2$, in 20 $\mu$s bins. The print's axis ends at about 147 $\mu$s; the hosted axis is extended so the one value in the 140 to 160 $\mu$s bin is shown. data.csv
panel (a-inset): Inset of (a): average $T_2^{\mathrm{Hahn}}$ ($\mu$s) against dose, 0.48, 1.6 and $4.8\times10^{20}$ e$^-$/cm$^2$, with error bars, points joined by lines as printed. data.csv
panel (b): Histogram of the Rabi contrast $C_{\mathrm{Rabi}}$ (%) of NVs irradiated with $1.6\times10^{20}$ e$^-$/cm$^2$, in 2% bins. data.csv
panel (b-inset): Inset of (b): average $C_{\mathrm{Rabi}}$ (%) against dose, 0.48, 1.6 and $4.8\times10^{20}$ e$^-$/cm$^2$, with error bars, points joined by lines as printed. data.csv
panel (c): Histograms of the saturation count rate PL$_{\mathrm{sat}}$ (kcps) of single NVs in 280 nm pillars, $\delta$-e$^-$ irradiated at $1.6\times10^{20}$ e$^-$/cm$^2$ (yellow) and non-irradiated (grey), side by side in 100 kcps bins, with their Gaussian fits as solid curves. The printed mean and standard deviation labels are not hosted. data.csv
panel (d): Histograms of the saturation count rate PL$_{\mathrm{sat}}$ (kcps) of single NVs in 480 nm pillars, $\delta$-e$^-$ irradiated at $1.6\times10^{20}$ e$^-$/cm$^2$ (yellow) and non-irradiated (grey), side by side in 300 kcps bins, with their Gaussian fits as solid curves. The printed mean and standard deviation labels are not hosted. data.csv
panel (e): Left axis: mean photon collection efficiency from FDTD simulations (dashed) against lateral NV distribution $\sigma_{\mathrm{loc}}^{\mathrm{pillar}}$ (nm) for 280 nm (purple) and 480 nm (teal) pillars. Right axis: measured mean PL$_{\mathrm{sat}}$ (kcps) of $\delta$-e$^-$-irradiated (triangles) and non-irradiated (circles) pillars, with standard-error bars. data.csv
Fig. 5
panel (a-1): Simulated histogram of the AC magnetic field sensitivity $\eta$ of single NVs in 480 nm pillars, $\delta$-e$^-$, $\delta$-doped (plot 1 of 4 in (a), top to bottom): probability per 0.1-decade bin. Hosted against $\log_{10}\eta$ on a linear axis, where the print draws $\eta$ (nT/$\sqrt{\mathrm{Hz}}$) on a log axis. data.csv
panel (a-2): Simulated histogram of the AC magnetic field sensitivity $\eta$ of single NVs in 480 nm pillars, non $\delta$-e$^-$, $\delta$-doped (plot 2 of 4 in (a), top to bottom): probability per 0.1-decade bin. Hosted against $\log_{10}\eta$ on a linear axis, where the print draws $\eta$ (nT/$\sqrt{\mathrm{Hz}}$) on a log axis. data.csv
panel (a-3): Simulated histogram of the AC magnetic field sensitivity $\eta$ of single NVs in 480 nm pillars, 30 keV implanted (plot 3 of 4 in (a), top to bottom): probability per 0.1-decade bin. Hosted against $\log_{10}\eta$ on a linear axis, where the print draws $\eta$ (nT/$\sqrt{\mathrm{Hz}}$) on a log axis. data.csv
panel (a-4): Simulated histogram of the AC magnetic field sensitivity $\eta$ of single NVs in 480 nm pillars, $\delta$-e$^-$, $\delta$-doped, tapered (plot 4 of 4 in (a), top to bottom): probability per 0.1-decade bin. Hosted against $\log_{10}\eta$ on a linear axis, where the print draws $\eta$ (nT/$\sqrt{\mathrm{Hz}}$) on a log axis. data.csv
panel (b): Cumulative distribution function of the simulated AC magnetic field sensitivity $\eta$ (nT/$\sqrt{\mathrm{Hz}}$, log axis) for the four NV populations of (a): $\delta$-e$^-$ $\delta$-doped, non $\delta$-e$^-$ $\delta$-doped, 30 keV implanted and $\delta$-e$^-$ $\delta$-doped tapered. The printed secondary axis of averaging time $t_{\mathrm{elec}}$ (min) is not hosted. data.csv
Cite
Sunghoon Kim, Paz London, Daipeng Yang, Lillian B. Hughes, Jeffrey Ahlers, Simon Meynell, William J. Mitchell, Kunal Mukherjee, Ania C. Bleszynski Jayich. Scalable nanoscale positioning of highly coherent color centers in prefabricated diamond nanostructures. Nat. Commun. 16, 9803 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-025-64758-4
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