Active and fast charge-state switching of single NV centres in diamond by in-plane Al-Schottky junctions

In this paper, we demonstrate an active and fast control of the charge state and hence of the optical and electronic properties of single and near-surface nitrogen-vacancy centres (NV centres) in diamond. This active manipulation is achieved by using a two-dimensional Schottky-diode structure from diamond, i.e., by using aluminium as Schottky contact on a hydrogen terminated diamond surface. By changing the applied potential on the Schottky contact, we are able to actively switch single NV centres between all three charge states NV⁺, NV⁰ and NV⁻ on a timescale of 10 to 100 ns, corresponding to a switching frequency of 10–100 MHz. This switching frequency is much higher than the hyperfine interaction frequency between an electron spin (of NV⁻) and a nuclear spin (of ¹⁵N or ¹³C for example) of 2.66 kHz. This high-frequency charge state switching with a planar diode structure would open the door for many quantum optical applications such as a quantum computer with single NVs for quantum information processing as well as single ¹³C atoms for long-lifetime storage of quantum information. Furthermore, a control of spectral emission properties of single NVs as a single photon emitters – embedded in photonic structures for example – can be realized which would be vital for quantum communication and cryptography.