Electroluminescence of NV by impact excitation and Stark shift in a MIM diamond structure

Electrically driven emission of nitrogen-vacancy (NV) color centers in diamond has recently emerged as a viable candidate for quantum photonics. However, it is challenging to efficiently excite NV centers by an electric field because of the low density of free carriers in doped diamond. Here, we report efficient electroluminescence of neutrally charged nitrogen-vacancy (NV0) color centers under a high electric field (105 V/cm) and study its Stark effect in a MIM (Metal–Insulator–Metal) diamond device. The MIM device was fabricated by electron beam evaporating molybdenum electrodes and microwave plasma chemical vapor depositing a nitrogen-doped diamond epilayer successively on a single-crystal diamond substrate. We demonstrate the field dependence of the electrically driven emission and extract the NV0 ground state electric field susceptibility of 15.83 ± 0.86 GHzmMV−1 from the Stark effect at 5.5 K. Our findings provide a perspective toward electrically exciting color centers in diamond and help one to understand the inherent features of NV0.