Measurement of the optically induced spin polarisation of N-V centres in diamond

Abstract

The nitrogen-vacancy (N-V) colour centre in diamond has an electronic ground state with spin S = 1. The axial crystal field lifts the degeneracy of the spin triplet and the ground state consists of a spin singlet (Sz = 0) and a spin doublet (Sz = ± 1) separated by 2.88 GHz at zero field. Preferential population of the Sz = 0 state results when the centre is optically excited from the ground state. Using EPR spectroscopy at low temperature with laser illumination of the sample, we have quantified the degree of spin polarisation. The relevance of these measurements to proposed quantum computing applications of the N-V centre are discussed. Show more