Optical properties of the nitrogen-vacancy singlet levels in diamond

Abstract

We report measurements of the optical properties of the 1042 nm transition of negatively charged nitrogen-vacancy (NV) centers in type-1b diamond. The results indicate that the upper level of this transition couples to the ${m}_{s}=\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}1$ sublevels of the $^{3}E$ excited state and is short lived with a lifetime of $\ensuremath{\lesssim}1\text{ }\text{ns}$. The lower level is shown to have a temperature-dependent lifetime of 462(10) ns at 4.4 K and 219(3) ns at 295 K. The light-polarization dependence of 1042 nm absorption confirms that the transition is between orbitals of ${A}_{1}$ and $E$ character. The results shed light on the NV level structure and optical pumping mechanism.

Locations

• arXiv (Cornell University) - View - PDF
• DataCite API - View
• Physical Review B - View