Magnetic-Field-Assisted Spectral Decomposition and Imaging of Charge States of N - V Centers in Diamond

Abstract

With the advent of quantum technology, nitrogen vacancy ($\mathrm{N}$-$V$) centers in diamond turn out to be a frontier that provides an efficient platform for quantum computation, communication, and sensing applications. Due to the coupled spin-charge dynamics of the $\mathrm{N}$-$V$ system, knowledge of $\mathrm{N}$-$V$ charge-state dynamics can help to formulate efficient spin-control sequences strategically. Here, we report two spectroscopy-based deconvolution methods to create charge-state mapping images of ensembles of $\mathrm{N}$-$V$ centers in diamond. First, relying on the fact that an off-axis external magnetic field mixes the electronic spins and selectively modifies the photoluminescence (PL) of $\mathrm{N}$-${V}^{\ensuremath{-}}$, we perform decomposition of the optical spectrum for an ensemble of $\mathrm{N}$-$V$ and extract the spectra for $\mathrm{N}$-${V}^{\ensuremath{-}}$ and $\mathrm{N}$-${V}^{0}$ states. Next, we introduce an optical-filter-based decomposition protocol and perform PL imaging for $\mathrm{N}$-${V}^{\ensuremath{-}}$ and $\mathrm{N}$-${V}^{0}$. Previously obtained spectra for $\mathrm{N}$-${V}^{\ensuremath{-}}$ and $\mathrm{N}$-${V}^{0}$ states are used to calculate their transmissivities through a long-pass optical filter. These results help us to determine the spatial distribution of the $\mathrm{N}$-$V$ charge states in a diamond sample.