Preferentially aligned nitrogen-vacancy centers in heteroepitaxial (111) diamonds on Si substrates via 3C-SiC intermediate layers

Abstract

Nitrogen-vacancy (NV) centers in diamonds are expected for high-performance quantum sensing devices. The NV centers in heteroepitaxial diamond films on Si substrates have more potential to enable low-cost and large-area sensors than typical single-crystal diamond substrates and to support the emergence of diamond/Si hybrid devices. In this paper, NV centers were formed in (111) heteroepitaxial diamond films on Si substrates with preferential atomic alignment in the [111] direction. In addition, incorporation of silicon-vacancy centers, which decrease the sensitivity of sensors, from the 3C-SiC/Si substrate was effectively suppressed using oxygen gas in the growth environment.