Tin-vacancy ($\mathrm{Sn}\text{−}V$) color centers were created in diamond via ion implantation and subsequent high-temperature annealing up to $2100°\mathrm{C}$ at 7.7 GPa. The first-principles calculation suggested that a large atom of tin can be incorporated into a diamond lattice with a split-vacancy configuration, in which a tin atom sits on an interstitial site with two neighboring vacancies. The $\mathrm{Sn}\text{−}V$ center showed a sharp zero phonon line at 619 nm at room temperature. This line split into four peaks at cryogenic temperatures, with a larger ground state splitting ($\sim 850\mathrm{GHz}$) than that of color centers based on other group-IV elements, i.e., silicon-vacancy ($\mathrm{Si}\text{−}V$) and germanium-vacancy ($\mathrm{Ge}\text{−}V$) centers. The excited state lifetime was estimated, via Hanbury Brown–Twiss interferometry measurements on single $\mathrm{Sn}\text{−}V$ quantum emitters, to be $\sim 5\mathrm{ns}$. The order of the experimentally obtained optical transition energies, compared with those of $\mathrm{Si}\text{−}V$ and $\mathrm{Ge}\text{−}V$ centers, was in good agreement with the theoretical calculations.

• Received 14 August 2017

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.119.253601