The properties of the nitrogen-vacancy center in milled chemical vapor deposition nanodiamonds

Abstract

Fluorescent nanodiamonds (FNDs) containing negatively charged nitrogen-vacancy (NV−) centers are vital for many emerging quantum sensing applications from magnetometry to intracellular sensing in biology. However, developing a scalable fabrication method for FNDs hosting color centers with consistent bulk-like photoluminescence (PL) and spin coherence properties remains a highly desired but unrealized goal. Here, we investigate optimized ball milling of single-crystal diamonds produced via chemical vapor deposition (CVD) and containing 2 ppm of substitutional nitrogen and 0.3 ppm of NV− to achieve this goal. The NV charge state, PL lifetime, and spin properties of bulk CVD diamond samples ar..