Luminescence lifetimes of neutral nitrogen-vacancy centres in synthetic diamond containing nitrogen

Abstract

The decay time of luminescence from neutral nitrogen-vacancy (NV 0) centres in synthetic diamond is reported. The intrinsic luminescence lifetime of NV 0 is measured as τr = 19 ± 2 ns. Neutral substitutional nitrogen atoms are shown to quench luminescence from NV0 by dipole–dipole resonant energy transfer at a rate such that the transfer time would equal τr if one atom was ∼3 nm from the NV0. In chemical-vapour-deposited diamonds grown with a small nitrogen content, that are brown as a result of vacancy-cluster defects, the decay time of NV0 equals τr in the as-grown material. However, after annealing at ≥1700 °C to remove the brown colour, luminescence from the NV0 centres is severely quenched. This effect is suggested to be a result of the destruction of NV0 centres and the creation of new NV0 centres localized in vacancy-rich regions of the crystals.