Splitting of photoluminescent emission from nitrogen–vacancy centers in diamond induced by ion-damage-induced stress

We report a systematic investigation on the spectral splitting of negatively charged, nitrogen–vacancy (NV−) photoluminescent emission in single-crystal diamond induced by strain engineering. The stress fields arise from MeV ion-induced conversion of diamond to amorphous and graphitic material in regions proximal to the centers of interest. In low-nitrogen sectors of a high-pressure–high-temperature diamond, clearly distinguishable spectral components in the NV− emission develop over a range of 4.8 THz corresponding to distinct alignment of sub-ensembles which were mapped with micron spatial resolution. This method provides opportunities for the creation and selection of aligned NV− centers for ensemble quantum information protocols.