Creation and characterization of He-related color centers in diamond

Diamond is a promising material for the development of emerging applications in quantum optics, quantum information and quantum sensing. The fabrication and characterization of novel luminescent defects with suitable opto-physical properties is therefore of primary importance for further advances in these research fields. In this work we report on the investigation in the formation of photoluminescent (PL) defects upon MeV He implantation in diamond. Such color centers, previously reported only in electroluminescence and cathodoluminescence regime, exhibited two sharp emission lines at 536.5 nm and 560.5 nm, without significant phonon sidebands. A strong correlation between the PL intensities of the above-mentioned emission lines and the He implantation fluence was found in the 10¹⁵–10¹⁷ cm⁻² fluence range. The PL emission features were not detected in control samples, i.e. samples that were either unirradiated or irradiated with different ion species (H, C). Therefore, the PL features are attributed to optically active defects in the diamond matrix associated with He impurities. The intensity of the 536.5 nm and 560.5 nm emission lines was investigated as a function of the annealing temperature of the diamond substrate. The emission was observed upon annealing at temperatures higher than 500 °C, at the expenses of the concurrently decreasing neutral-vacancy-related GR1 emission intensity. Therefore, our findings indicate that the luminescence originates from the formation of a stable lattice defect. Finally, photoluminescence from He-related defects was observed under different laser excitations wavelengths (i.e. 532 nm and 405 nm), thus providing promising evidence of a broad spectral range for optical stimulation. - Highlights: • Creation of luminescent defects in single-crystal diamond upon He implantation. • First observation of photoluminescent emission from two sharp emission lines at 536.5 and 560.5 nm. • Attribution of the emission lines to He-containing defects. • Investigation in the defect formation upon thermal treatments of the substrate. • Investigation in the defects luminescence under different excitation wavelengths.