Silicon-vacancy center in diamond

This interest is driven primarily by the coherent optical properties of the Si-V, especially compared to the well-known and extensively-studied nitrogen-vacancy center (N-V).

[2] The Si-V− center is a single-hole (spin-1/2) system with ground and excited electronic states located within the diamond bandgap.

This property, together with the weak electron-phonon coupling, results in a narrow ZPL in the Si-V center, which is mostly limited by its intrinsic lifetime.

[17][18] After the ion implantation, additional thermal treatments may be applied to repair structural defects and activate impurities.

Unlike the ion implantation used to produce N-V centers, Si-V complexes can withstand higher temperature thermal treatments without dissociation risk.

[20] In practice, Si-V centers have been synthesized using multiple systems, with differing optical properties such as the widths of resultant ZPLs.

First, when a solid containing Silicon is etched with hydrogen, and SiHx radicals dope the diamond lattice.

[22] Si-V centers have been synthesized via tetramethylsilane (TMS) gas as a doping source,[23][22] and in the hydrogen plasma example chemicals such as H2/CH4/CO2 and H2/CH4/N2 have been used to grow the diamonds on Si substrates.

[27] Si-V− centers in dilution refrigeration systems below 100 millikelvin can be used in quantum network applications, with spin memory long enough for entanglement up to 500 kilometers.

[8] This is because Si-V− centers can be integrated in nanophotonic structures to improve their interaction with photons for quantum communication.