Controlled Surface Modification to Revive Shallow NV<sup>-</sup> Centers.
basic_science · Level V
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 36927005.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1021/acs.nanolett.2c04733 and PMC identifier 10103335.
- Licence recorded as CC BY.
- The licence permits redistribution, so the abstract is shown in full and the full text is available from the publisher.
Abstract
Near-surface negatively charged nitrogen vacancy (NV) centers hold excellent promise for nanoscale magnetic imaging and quantum sensing. However, they often experience charge-state instabilities, leading to strongly reduced fluorescence and NV coherence time, which negatively impact magnetic imaging sensitivity. This occurs even more severely at 4 K and ultrahigh vacuum (UHV, <i>p</i> = 2 × 10<sup>-10</sup> mbar). We demonstrate that <i>in situ</i> adsorption of H<sub>2</sub>O on the diamond surface allows the partial recovery of the shallow NV sensors. Combining these with band-bending calculations, we conclude that controlled surface treatments are essential for implementing NV-based quantum sensing protocols under cryogenic UHV conditions.