99.996% 12C films enriched and deposited in situ

Published

June 28, 2013

Author(s)

Kevin J. Dwyer, Joshua M. Pomeroy, David S. Simons

Abstract

A mass selected ion beam system is used to isotopically enrich and deposit thin films, which are measured to be 99.9961(4)% 12C. In solid state quantum information, isotopic enrichment of materials has allowed significant improvements in the coherence time of the electron spin state, a prime candidate for use as a qubit. The enrichment eliminates the natural abundance of isotopes with non-zero nuclear spin resulting in a solid-state vacuum, i.e., a nearly spin free environment for the qubit. Qubits based on the nitrogen-vacancy (NV) centers in diamond are attractive due to the optical accessibility of the spin state and their intrinsic environmental isolation. NV center coherence time measurements exceeding a second are motivating e orts to optimize the performance including 12C enrichment. Starting from a gas source of natural abundance, we ionize, mass select, and deposit thin films of enriched 12C onto oxidized silicon substrates. The enrichment of the deposited films is assessed ex situ using Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometry.

Citation

Applied Physics Letters

Volume

102

Pub Type

Journals

Keywords

quantum information, nitrogen-vacancy center, enriched carbon

Citation

Dwyer, K. , Pomeroy, J. and Simons, D. (2013), 99.996% 12C films enriched and deposited in situ, Applied Physics Letters (Accessed May 11, 2025)