Color Centers in Diamond and Silicon Carbide for Quantum Sensing and Photonics
This community researches atomic-scale defects in diamond and silicon carbide to create quantum sensors, single-photon emitters, and solid-state qubits.
The work centers on engineering specific point defects, such as nitrogen-vacancy centers in diamond and silicon vacancies in silicon carbide, to function as stable quantum emitters and magnetic sensors. Key methods include chemical vapor deposition for growing high-quality crystals, ion implantation for defect placement, and femtosecond laser processing for surface modification. The research tracks the optical and spin properties of these defects, with a strong focus on achieving room-temperature operation and integrating these materials into thin films and nanodiamond structures for practical sensing applications.
The community is most heavily concentrated in silicon research, accounting for 1.3% of all silicon-related papers, followed by carbon at 0.9% and nitrogen at 0.3%. Silicon also contributes the highest raw paper count within this group, with 4,816 papers, while carbon contributes 7,187 papers.
The community comprises 11,415 papers, published primarily in Applied Physics Letters, Materials Science Forum, and the Journal of Applied Physics.
Recent work focuses on applying these quantum sensors to biomedical imaging, such as intracellular nanothermometry using nanodiamonds, and developing non-invasive bioinert sensors from silicon carbide qubits. Other recent studies explore the use of these defects for quantum spin resonance in engineered proteins and for detecting free radicals in chemical reactions.