Tin-Vacancy Quantum Emitters in Diamond

Abstract

Tin-vacancy ($\mathrm{Sn}\text{\ensuremath{-}}V$) color centers were created in diamond via ion implantation and subsequent high-temperature annealing up to $2100\text{ }\ifmmode^\circ\else\textdegree\fi{}\mathrm{C}$ at 7.7 GPa. The first-principles calculation suggested that a large atom of tin can be incorporated into a diamond lattice with a split-vacancy configuration, in which a tin atom sits on an interstitial site with two neighboring vacancies. The $\mathrm{Sn}\text{\ensuremath{-}}V$ center showed a sharp zero phonon line at 619 nm at room temperature. This line split into four peaks at cryogenic temperatures, with a larger ground state splitting ($\ensuremath{\sim}850\text{ }\text{ }\mathrm{GHz}$) than that of color centers based on other group-IV elements, i.e., silicon-vacancy ($\mathrm{Si}\text{\ensuremath{-}}V$) and germanium-vacancy ($\mathrm{Ge}\text{\ensuremath{-}}V$) centers. The excited state lifetime was estimated, via Hanbury Brown--Twiss interferometry measurements on single $\mathrm{Sn}\text{\ensuremath{-}}V$ quantum emitters, to be $\ensuremath{\sim}5\text{ }\text{ }\mathrm{ns}$. The order of the experimentally obtained optical transition energies, compared with those of $\mathrm{Si}\text{\ensuremath{-}}V$ and $\mathrm{Ge}\text{\ensuremath{-}}V$ centers, was in good agreement with the theoretical calculations.