Diamond Surfaces with Lateral Gradients for Systematic Optimization of Surface Chemistry for Relaxometry – a Low-Pressure Plasma-Based Approach

Diamond is increasingly popular because of its unique material properties. Diamond defects called nitrogen vacancy (NV) centers allow for measurements with unprecedented sensitivity. However, to achieve ideal sensing performance, NV centers need to be within nanometers from the surface and are thus strongly dependent on the local surface chemistry. Several attempts have been made to compare diamond surfaces. However, due to the high price of diamond crystals with shallow NV centers, a limited number of chemical modifications have been studied. Here, we developed a systematic method to investigate the continuity of different local environments with varying densities and natures of surface groups in a single experiment on a single diamond plate. To achieve this goal, we used diamonds with a shallow ensemble of NV centers and introduced a chemical gradient across the surface. More specifically, we used air and hydrogen plasma. The gradients were formed by a low-pressure plasma treatment after masking with a right-angled triangular prism shield. As a result, the surface contained gradually more oxygen/hydrogen toward the open end of the shield. We then performed wide-field relaxometry to determine the effect of surface chemistry on the sensing performance. As expected, relaxation times and thus sensing performance indeed vary along the gradient.