Highly tunable formation of nitrogen-vacancy centers via ion implantation

We demonstrate highly tunable formation of nitrogen-vacancy (NV) centers using 20 keV ¹⁵N⁺ ion implantation through arrays of high-resolution apertures fabricated with electron beam lithography. By varying the aperture diameters from 80 to 240 nm, as well as the average ion fluences from $5×1010$ to 2 × 10¹¹ ions/cm², we can control the number of ions per aperture. We analyze the photoluminescence on multiple sites with different implantation parameters and obtain ion-to-NV conversion yields of 6%–7%, consistent across all ion fluences. The implanted NV centers have spin dephasing times $T2*$ ∼ 3 μs, comparable to naturally occurring NV centers in high purity diamond with natural abundance ¹³C. With this technique, we can deterministically control the population distribution of NV centers in each aperture, allowing for the study of single or coupled NV centers and their integration into photonic structures.