Optical properties of silicon-vacancy color centers in diamond created by ion implantation and post-annealing

Silicon-vacancy (SiV) color centers have been created in diamond by ion implantation and post annealing at LABEC (Florence). A wide range of implantation depths (0–2.4 μm) and fluences (108–1015 cm−2), along with a variety of substrates (single and poly-crystals) have been explored. The photoluminescence properties of the SiV centers have been studied at room temperature, including their single-photon emission characteristics. Single-photon emitters have been obtained at the lower-end of the implantation fluences range. They exhibit a short excited-state lifetime (~1 ns), a strong zero-phonon transition with a narrow linewidth (~1.6 nm) and a very small inhomogeneous broadening (0.015 nm), features that qualify them for application in quantum optical technologies. The activation yield of SiV centers has been assessed under different experimental conditions. It has been found to be independent of the implantation energy and in the range of 3% after thermal annealing.