title: Active charge state control of single NV centres in diamond by in-plane Al-Schottky junctions.
abstract: In this paper, we demonstrate an active control of the charge state of a single nitrogen-vacancy (NV) centre by using in-plane Schottky-diode geometries with aluminium on hydrogen-terminated diamond surface. A switching between NV(+), NV(0) and NV(-) can be performed with the Al-gates which apply electric fields in the hole depletion region of the Schottky junction that induces a band bending modulation, thereby shifting the Fermi-level over NV charge transition levels. We simulated the in-plane band structure of the Schottky junction with the Software ATLAS by solving the drift-diffusion model and the Poisson-equation self-consistently. We simulated the IV-characteristics, calculated the width of the hole depletion region, the position of the Fermi-level intersection with the NV charge transition levels for different reverse bias voltages applied on the Al-gate. We can show that the field-induced band bending modulation in the depletion region causes a shifting of the Fermi-level over NV charge transition levels in such a way that the charge state of a single NV centre and thus its electrical and optical properties is tuned. In addition, the NV centre should be approx. 1-2 μm away from the Al-edge in order to be switched with moderate bias voltages.
authors.affiliation: Fraunhofer-Institute for Applied Solid State Physics (IAF), 79108 Freiburg, Germany.
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Schreyvogel
authors.affiliation: Fraunhofer-Institute for Applied Solid State Physics (IAF), 79108 Freiburg, Germany.
authors.forename: V
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Polyakov
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics and Geoscience, University of Leipzig, 04103 Leipzig, Germany.
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Wunderlich
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics and Geoscience, University of Leipzig, 04103 Leipzig, Germany.
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Meijer
authors.affiliation: Fraunhofer-Institute for Applied Solid State Physics (IAF), 79108 Freiburg, Germany.
authors.forename: C E
authors.initials: CE
authors.lastname: Nebel