Yield Improvement of SiV^- Color Centers in Diamond via Silicon/Carbon Sequential Implantation

Color centers in diamond are promising candidate sources of single photons for future optical and electro-optical quantum platforms, as well as sensitive probes of local magnetic field. The silicon-vacancy center defect (SiV^-) is of particular interest due to its relative insensitivity to environmental perturbations. Conventional fabrication methods are non-deterministic in location and have low yield. Here, we describe a technique in which silicon and carbon ions are implanted sequentially to increase the number of available vacancies. Preliminary photoluminescence results indicate an enhancement of the SiV^- yield of ~ 25 - 140%. Future work to improve the spatial positioning of these defects to tens of nanometers via focused ion beam implantation will be discussed. This work was performed, in part, at the Center for Integrated Nanotechnologies, an Office of Science User Facility operated for the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Science. Sandia National Laboratories is a multi-mission laboratory managed and operated by National Technology and Engineering Solutions of Sandia, LLC., a wholly owned subsidiary of Honeywell International, Inc., for the U.S. Department of Energy's National Nuclear Security Administration under contract DE-NA-0003525.