title: Optical patterning of trapped charge in nitrogen-doped diamond.
abstract: The nitrogen-vacancy (NV) centre in diamond is emerging as a promising platform for solid-state quantum information processing and nanoscale metrology. Of interest in these applications is the manipulation of the NV charge, which can be attained by optical excitation. Here, we use two-colour optical microscopy to investigate the dynamics of NV photo-ionization, charge diffusion and trapping in type-1b diamond. We combine fixed-point laser excitation and scanning fluorescence imaging to locally alter the concentration of negatively charged NVs, and to subsequently probe the corresponding redistribution of charge. We uncover the formation of spatial patterns of trapped charge, which we qualitatively reproduce via a model of the interplay between photo-excited carriers and atomic defects. Further, by using the NV as a probe, we map the relative fraction of positively charged nitrogen on localized optical excitation. These observations may prove important to transporting quantum information between NVs or to developing three-dimensional, charge-based memories.
authors: Department of Physics, CUNY-City College of New York, New York, New York 10031, USA.
authors: Harishankar
authors: H
authors: Jayakumar
authors: Department of Physics, CUNY-City College of New York, New York, New York 10031, USA.|CUNY-Graduate Center, New York, New York 10016, USA.
authors: Jacob
authors: J
authors: Henshaw
authors: Department of Physics, CUNY-City College of New York, New York, New York 10031, USA.
authors: Siddharth
authors: S
authors: Dhomkar
authors: Department of Physics, CUNY-City College of New York, New York, New York 10031, USA.
authors: Daniela
authors: D
authors: Pagliero
authors: Department of Physics, CUNY-City College of New York, New York, New York 10031, USA.
authors: Abdelghani
authors: A
authors: Laraoui
authors: Laser Physics Centre, Research School of Physics and Engineering, Australian National University, Canberra, Australian Capital Territory 0200, Australia.
authors: Neil B
authors: NB
authors: Manson
authors: Department of Physics, CUNY-City College of New York, New York, New York 10031, USA.
authors: Remus
authors: R
authors: Albu
authors: Laser Physics Centre, Research School of Physics and Engineering, Australian National University, Canberra, Australian Capital Territory 0200, Australia.
authors: Marcus W
authors: MW
authors: Doherty
authors: Department of Physics, CUNY-City College of New York, New York, New York 10031, USA.|CUNY-Graduate Center, New York, New York 10016, USA.
authors: Carlos A
authors: CA
authors: Meriles