We show a marked reduction in the emission from nitrogen-vacancy (NV) color centers in single crystal diamond due to exposure of the diamond to hydrogen plasmas ranging from 700{\deg}C to 1000{\deg}C. Significant fluorescence reduction was observed beneath the exposed surface to at least 80mm depth after ~10 minutes, and did not recover after post-annealing in vacuum for seven hours at 1100{\deg}C. We attribute the fluorescence reduction to the formation of NVH centers by the plasma induced diffusion of hydrogen. These results have important implications for the formation of nitrogen-vacancy centers for quantum applications, and inform our understanding of the conversion of nitrogen-vacancy to NVH, whilst also providing the first experimental evidence of long range hydrogen diffusion through intrinsic high-purity diamond material.
@article{arxiv.1108.6078,
title = {Depletion of nitrogen-vacancy color centers in diamond via hydrogen passivation},
author = {A. Stacey and T. J. Karle and L. P. McGuinness and B. C. Gibson and K. Ganesan and S. Tomljenovic-Hanic and A. D. Greentree and S. Prawer and R. G. Beausoleil and A. Hoffman},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1108.6078},
year = {2015}
}