Neutral silicon vacancy centers (SiV0) in diamond are promising candidates for quantum networks because of their long spin coherence times and stable, narrow optical transitions. However, stabilizing SiV0 requires high purity, boron doped diamond, which is not a readily available material. Here, we demonstrate an alternative approach via chemical control of the diamond surface. We use low-damage chemical processing and annealing in a hydrogen environment to realize reversible and highly stable charge state tuning in undoped diamond. The resulting SiV0 centers display optically detected magnetic resonance and bulk-like optical properties. Controlling the charge state tuning via surface termination offers a route for scalable technologies based on SiV0 centers, as well as charge state engineering of other defects.
@article{arxiv.2206.13698,
title = {Neutral silicon vacancy centers in undoped diamond via surface control},
author = {Zi-Huai Zhang and Josh A. Zuber and Lila V. H. Rodgers and Xin Gui and Paul Stevenson and Minghao Li and Marietta Batzer and Marcel. li Grimau and Brendan Shields and Andrew M. Edmonds and Nicola Palmer and Matthew L. Markham and Robert J. Cava and Patrick Maletinsky and Nathalie P. de Leon},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2206.13698},
year = {2023}
}