Mitigating the Transition of SiV$^-$ in Diamond to an Optically Dark State

Quantum Physics arXiv:2512.06389 (quant-ph) [Submitted on 6 Dec 2025] Title:Mitigating the Transition of SiV$^-$ in Diamond to an Optically Dark State Authors:Manuel Rieger, Rubek Poudel, Tobias Waldmann, Lina M. Todenhagen, Stefan Kresta, Nori N. Chavira Leal, Viviana Villafañe, Martin S. Brandt, Kai Müller, Jonathan J. Finley View a PDF of the paper titled Mitigating the Transition of SiV$^-$ in Diamond to an Optically Dark State, by Manuel Rieger and 9 other authors View PDF HTML (experimental) Abstract:Negatively charged silicon vacancy centers in diamond (SiV$^-$) are promising for quantum photonic technologies. However, when subject to resonant optical excitation, they can inadvertently transfer into a zero-spin optically dark state. We show that this unwanted change of charge state can be quickly reversed by the resonant laser itself in combination with static electric fields. By defining interdigitated metallic contacts on the diamond surface, we increase the steady-state SiV$^-$ photoluminescence under resonant excitation by a factor $\ge3$ for most emitters, making it practically constant for certain individual emitters. We electrically activate single \sivs near the positively biased electrode, which are entirely dark without applying local electric fields. Using time-resolved 3-color experiments, we show that the resonant laser not only excites the SiV$^-$, but also creates free holes that convert SiV$^{2-}$ to SiV$^-$ on a timescale of milliseconds. Through analysis of several individual emitters, our results show that the degree of electrical charge state controllability differs between individual emitters, indicating that their local environment plays a key role. Our proposed electric-field-based stabilization scheme enhances deterministic charge state control in group-IV color centers and improves its understanding, offering a scalable path toward quantum applications such as entanglement generation and quantum key distribution. Subjects: Quantum Physics (quant-ph); Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics (cond-mat.mes-hall); Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci); Optics (physics.optics) Cite as: arXiv:2512.06389 [quant-ph] (or arXiv:2512.06389v1 [quant-ph] for this version) https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2512.06389 Focus to learn more arXiv-issued DOI via DataCite (pending registration) Submission history From: Manuel Rieger [view email] [v1] Sat, 6 Dec 2025 10:40:03 UTC (9,968 KB) Full-text links: Access Paper: View a PDF of the paper titled Mitigating the Transition of SiV$^-$ in Diamond to an Optically Dark State, by Manuel Rieger and 9 other authorsView PDFHTML (experimental)TeX Source view license Current browse context: quant-ph new | recent | 2025-12 Change to browse by: cond-mat cond-mat.mes-hall cond-mat.mtrl-sci physics physics.optics References & Citations INSPIRE HEP NASA ADSGoogle Scholar Semantic Scholar export BibTeX citation Loading... BibTeX formatted citation × loading... Data provided by: Bookmark Bibliographic Tools Bibliographic and Citation Tools Bibliographic Explorer Toggle Bibliographic Explorer (What is the Explorer?) Connected Papers Toggle Connected Papers (What is Connected Papers?) Litmaps Toggle Litmaps (What is Litmaps?) scite.ai Toggle scite Smart Citations (What are Smart Citations?) Code, Data, Media Code, Data and Media Associated with this Article alphaXiv Toggle alphaXiv (What is alphaXiv?) Links to Code Toggle CatalyzeX Code Finder for Papers (What is CatalyzeX?) DagsHub Toggle DagsHub (What is DagsHub?) GotitPub Toggle Gotit.pub (What is GotitPub?) Huggingface Toggle Hugging Face (What is Huggingface?) Links to Code Toggle Papers with Code (What is Papers with Code?) ScienceCast Toggle ScienceCast (What is ScienceCast?) Demos Demos Replicate Toggle Replicate (What is Replicate?) Spaces Toggle Hugging Face Spaces (What is Spaces?) Spaces Toggle TXYZ.AI (What is TXYZ.AI?) Related Papers Recommenders and Search Tools Link to Influence Flower Influence Flower (What are Influence Flowers?) Core recommender toggle CORE Recommender (What is CORE?) Author Venue Institution Topic About arXivLabs arXivLabs: experimental projects with community collaborators arXivLabs is a framework that allows collaborators to develop and share new arXiv features directly on our website. Both individuals and organizations that work with arXivLabs have embraced and accepted our values of openness, community, excellence, and user data privacy. arXiv is committed to these values and only works with partners that adhere to them. Have an idea for a project that will add value for arXiv's community? Learn more about arXivLabs. Which authors of this paper are endorsers? | Disable MathJax (What is MathJax?)