Negatively charged boron vacancy center in diamond
T. Umeda, Kenji Watanabe, H. Hara, Hitoshi Sumiya, Shinobu Onoda, Akira Uedono, I. Chuprina, Petr Siyushev, Fedor Jelezko, Jörg Wrachtrup, Junichi Isoya
Abstract
The negatively charged boron-vacancy pair - the BV${}^{\ensuremath{-}}$ center - was a missing defect in diamond. It is expectedly very similar to the NV${}^{\ensuremath{-}}$ center, which is one of the most famous spin defects or spin qubits in semiconductors. The BV${}^{\ensuremath{-}}$ center has now been identified by electron paramagnetic resonance on specially prepared diamonds. Its spin-triplet state resembles a lot that of NV${}^{\ensuremath{-}}$, while its optically detected magnetic resonance signal was invisible, posing a puzzle why the BV${}^{\ensuremath{-}}$ luminescence is so weak.