Generation of Nitrogen-Vacancy Center Pairs in Bulk Diamond by Molecular Nitrogen Implantation**Supported by the Strategic Priority Research Program (B) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences under Grant No XDB01030200, the National Natural Science Foundation of China under Grant Nos 11374290, 91536219, 61522508 and 11504363, the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities, the China Postdoctoral Science Foundation under Grant No

Abstract

The coupled negatively charged nitrogen-vacancy (NV−) center system is a promising candidate for scalable quantum information techniques. In this work, ionized nitrogen molecules are implanted into bulk diamond to generate coupled NV− center pairs. The two-photon autocorrelation measurement and optically detected magnetic resonance measurement are carried out to confirm the production of the NV− center pair. Also, both 1.3 μs decoherence time and 4.9 kHz magnetic coupling strength of the NV− center pair are measured by controlling and detecting the spin states. Along with nanoscale manipulation and detection methods, such coupled NV− centers through short distance dipole-dipole interaction would show high potential in scalable quantum information processes.