Nitrogen-vacancy center

The nitrogen-vacancy center (N-V center or NV center) is one of numerous point defects in diamond. Its most explored and useful property is its photoluminescence, which allows observers to read out its spin-state. The NV center's electron spin, localized at atomic scales, can be manipulated at room temperature by external factors such as magnetic, or electric fields, microwave radiation, or optical light, resulting in sharp resonances in the intensity of the photoluminescence. These resonances can be explained in terms of electron spin related phenomena such as quantum entanglement, spin–orbit interaction and Rabi oscillations, and analysed using advanced quantum optics theory. An individual NV center can be used as a basic unit for a quantum computer, a qubit, and used for quantum cryptography. Further potential applications in novel fields of electronics and sensing include spintronics, masers, and quantum sensors. If the charge is not specified the term "NV center" refers to the neg

About this result

This page is automatically generated and may contain information that is not correct, complete, up-to-date, or relevant to your search query. The same applies to every other page on this website. Please make sure to verify the information with EPFL's official sources.

Related publications

Related people

Related units

Related concepts

Related courses

Related lectures

Summary

Official source

About this result

Related publications (28)

Related publications

Related people (1)

Related people

Related units (1)

Related units

Related concepts (3)

Related concepts

Related courses (2)

Related courses

Related lectures (4)

Related lectures

The development of multinary nitrides materials has revolutionised the hard coatings industry over the last 20 years. Especially important materials systems in this matter have been TiAlN and CrAlN which shows higher hardness, better oxidation resistance and can perform at higher temperatures as compared to TiN. When synthesised through physical vapour deposition techniques these system form cubic rock salt structured Ti1-xAlxN and Cr1-xAlxN solid solutions as a metastable phase over a large part of the concentration range. One of the main objectives during the optimisation of the coatings has been to increase the amount of Al in the coating while still keeping the rock salt structure, avoiding phase separation and the formation of hexagonal wurtzite AlN. However, in Al-rich TiAlN coatings it was found that isostructural decomposition within the cubic phase was in fact beneficial for the coatings performance at working temperatures just below 1000 °C. The reason was that the formation of strained coherent c-AlN domains within the grains initiated a age-hardening of the coating. In the CrAlN coatings it is possible to solve a larger amount of Al in the cubic phase. Possibly connected to this fact is that no isostructural decomposition and in principle no age hardening has been observed in rock salt structured Cr1-xAlxN. Although large series of experimental investigations have been performed on these systems, no systematic theoretical study has yet been undertaken. This theoretical work is an attempt by means of first-principles calculations together with thermodynamics considerations within the framework of alloy theory, to close or decrease the knowledge gap between experimental observations of cutting performance of various coatings and the fundamental quantum mechanical and thermodynamics processes that governs it. We first consider the structural properties of the treated mixed nitride systems. The concept of atomic misfit or volume difference, which is well known in the community is studied and the physics that leads to a positive deviation from Vegard's rule is revealed. Then the TiAlN and CrAlN systems are studied in detail. A clear connection between the development of the electronic structure with composition and the mixing enthalpy of the alloys, and thus the tendency for decomposition, is found for TiAlN. The importance of magnetic effects on the thermodynamics of mixing in CrAlN is established leading to a qualitative lower tendency for decomposition. Since the nitrogen composition can deviate substantially from perfect stoichiometry in these systems, a study of the influence of nitrogen vacancies on the decomposition pattern of TiAlN in the cubic phase is performed. The results imply that a presence of nitrogen sub-stoichiometry in Al-rich TiAlN will enhance the tendency for isostructural decomposition. The achieved results including those for the systems ScAlN and HfAlN are compared and discussed especially by considering volume misfit and electronic bandstructure effects as driving forces for coherent and incoherent decomposition.

EPFL2009

Combined synchrotron x-ray diffraction and NV diamond magnetic microscopy measurements at high pressure

Mayeul Sylvain Chipaux, Margarita Lesik Gaussens, Charles Michel Henri Pépin

We report the possibility to simultaneously perform wide-field nitrogen-vacancy (NV) diamond magnetic microscopy and synchrotron x-ray diffraction measurements at high pressure. NV color centers are created on the culet of a diamond anvil which is integrated in a diamond anvil cell for static compression of the sample. The optically detected spin resonance of the NV centers is used to map the stray magnetic field produced by the sample magnetization. Using this combined scheme, the magnetic and structural behaviors can be simultaneously measured. As a proof-of-principle, we record the correlated alpha-Fe to epsilon-Fe structural and magnetic transitions of iron that occur here between 15 and 20 GPa at 300 K.

IOP PUBLISHING LTD2020

Optical-Microwave Pump-Probe Studies of Electronic Properties in Novel Materials

András Bojtor, Karoly Holczer, Sándor Kollarics, Bence Gábor Márkus, Ferenc Simon

Combined microwave-optical pump-probe methods are emerging to study the quantum state of spin qubit centers and the charge dynamics in semiconductors. A major hindrance is the limited bandwidth of microwave irradiation/detection circuitry which can be overcome with the use of broadband coplanar waveguides (CPWs). The development and performance characterization of two spectrometers is presented as follows: an optically detected magnetic resonance spectrometer (ODMR) and a microwave-detected photoconductivity measurement. In the first method, light serves as detection and microwaves excite the investigated medium, whereas in the second, the roles are interchanged. The performance is demonstrated by measuring ODMR maps on the nitrogen-vacancy (NV) center in diamond and time-resolved photoconductivity in p-doped silicon. The results demonstrate both an efficient coupling of the microwave irradiation to the samples as well as an excellent sensitivity for minute changes in sample conductivity.

WILEY-V C H VERLAG GMBH2020

Quantum entanglement

Quantum entanglement is the phenomenon that occurs when a group of particles are generated, interact, or share spatial proximity in a way such that the quantum state of each particle of the group ca

Electron paramagnetic resonance

Electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) or electron spin resonance (ESR) spectroscopy is a method for studying materials that have unpaired electrons. The basic concepts of EPR are analogous to those of

Qubit

In quantum computing, a qubit (ˈkjuːbɪt) or quantum bit is a basic unit of quantum information—the quantum version of the classic binary bit physically realized with a two-state device. A qubit is a

PHYS-744: Advanced Topics in Quantum Sciences and Technologies

This course provides an in-depth treatment of the latest experimental and theoretical topics in quantum sciences and technologies, including for example quantum sensing, quantum optics, cold atoms, theory of quantum measurements and open dissipative quantum systems, etc.

MSE-302: Phase transformations

Ce cours est une introduction aux transformations de phases liquide-solide et solide-solide. Il aborde les aspects thermodynamiques et cristallographiques. Il traite principalement des matériaux métalliques, et établira des ponts vers les céramiques et la minéralogie.