Efficient creation of shallow NV^- ensembles by high-angle ion implantation

@misc{sasaki2026efficient,
  title = {{Efficient creation of shallow NV$^-$ ensembles by high-angle ion implantation}},
  author = {Kento Sasaki and Hideyuki Watanabe and Tokuyuki Teraji and Takashi Taniguchi and Kenji Watanabe and Kensuke Kobayashi},
  howpublished = {arXiv},
  year = {2026},
  month = sep,
  doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2609.22937},
  eprint = {2609.22937},
  archivePrefix = {arXiv},
  url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.22937},
}

TY  - UNPB
TI  - Efficient creation of shallow NV^- ensembles by high-angle ion implantation
AU  - Kento Sasaki
AU  - Hideyuki Watanabe
AU  - Tokuyuki Teraji
AU  - Takashi Taniguchi
AU  - Kenji Watanabe
AU  - Kensuke Kobayashi
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/09/19
PB  - arXiv
DO  - 10.48550/arxiv.2609.22937
UR  - https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.22937
AB  - Negatively charged nitrogen-vacancy (NV^-) centers located a few nanometers below the diamond surface are key quantum defects for nanoscale sensing of external spins. However, the creation of shallow NV^- centers with high yield remains a materials challenge. Here, we demonstrate that high-angle ion implantation enhances the creation efficiency of shallow NV^- centers. By implanting ^15N ions at angles exceeding 60^∘, we achieve high NV^- yields approaching 10% with effective NV^- depths below 10 nm. These yields are significantly higher than those typically reported for shallow NV^- creation. The enhanced NV^- yield is consistent with an increased vacancy-to-nitrogen ratio in the near-surface region, which is expected to promote NV formation during annealing. The created NV^- ensembles show coherence properties comparable to those of single shallow NV^- centers at similar depths, and allow detection of nuclear spins in van der Waals materials attached to the diamond surface. Our results establish geometric control of ion implantation as a simple and broadly applicable approach to engineer shallow vacancy-related quantum defects.
ER  -