Ion Implantation and Quantum Manipulation of Nitrogen Vacancy Centers in Diamond

Abstract

The spin-dependent fluorescence and room-temperature stability of nitrogen vacancy (NV) centers in diamond crystals make them promising candidates for quantum information processing. As research progresses and the use of NV centers in complicated or multi-qubit systems becomes more common, the ability to place NV centers deterministically in the host material with high accuracy is critical. Here we implement a simple fabrication method for NV implantation, using standard electron-beam lithography techniques. Refinements of such a technique can drastically increase the scalability of NV systems. In addition to scalability, extending the coherence times of spin qubits is also critical for their future use in quantum computers, as the length of all applied gate operations must be performed within the coherence time. Thus, we investigate basic dynamical decoupling protocols as a means to both understand the dynamics of a single NV center system as well as to nd simple methods for extending coherence times.