Identification of nickel-vacancy defects by combining experimental and ab initio simulated photocurrent spectra

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There is a continuous search for solid-state spin qubits operating at room temperature with excitation in the IR communication bandwidth. Recently we have introduced the photoelectric detection of magnetic resonance (PDMR) to read the electron spin state of nitrogen-vacancy (NV) center in diamond, a technique which is promising for applications in quantum information technology. By measuring photoionization spectra on a diamond crystal we found two ionization thresholds that were not reported before. On the same sample we also observed absorption and photoluminescence signatures that were identified in literature as Ni associated defects. We performed \emph{ab initio} calculation of the photo-ionization cross-section of the nickel split vacancy complex (NiV) and N-related defects in their relevant charge states and fitted the concentration of these defects to the measured photocurrent spectrum, which led to a surprising match between experimental and calculated spectra. This study enabled to identify the two unknown ionization thresholds with the two acceptor levels of NiV. Because the excitation of NiV is in infrared, the photocurrent detected from the paramagnetic NiV color centers is a promising way towards designing a novel type of electrically readout qubits.