Confocal luminescence study of nitrogen-vacancy distribution within nitrogen-rich single crystal CVD diamond

Confocal photoluminescence (PL) microscopy was used to study a distribution of negatively charged nitrogen-vacancy (NV−) defects within a surface and in a cross section of a homoepitaxial chemical vapor deposition (CVD) diamond layer intentionally grown with a nitrogen concentration close to the solubility limit. A variation in the PL intensity within the whole sample was found to exceed no more than 30% of the intensity maximum. The diamond layers with densely packed NV− arrays are a promising material platform for the design of highly sensitive magnetic field and temperature sensors, as well as for using this material in quantum optics and informatics technologies based on NV− spins.