Oxygen in diamond: Thermal stability of ST1 spin centres and creation of oxygen-pair complexes

Little is known about oxygen-related defects in diamond. Recently, the promising room-temperature spin centre named ST1 was identified as an oxygen centre, but of still unknown atomic structure and thermal stability. In this work, we report on the optically active oxygen-related centres and the conditions for their formation, using ion implantation of oxygen in various conditions of depth and fluence. More specifically, we establish the temperature formation/stability range of the ST1 centre, which has a maximum at about 1100 °C and is narrower than for NV centres. In these conditions, optically detected magnetic resonance (ODMR) on small ST1 ensembles was measured with a spin readout contrast of >20% at 300 K. In cathodoluminescence, the 535 nm ST1 peak is not observed. Besides, a broad peak centred at 460 nm is measured for implantation of O2 molecular ions. For an annealing temperature of 1500 °C, a different centre is formed (with ZPL at 584.5 nm) with an intensity increasing with a power law 1.5 < p < 1.9 dependence from the implantation fluence. This suggests that this centre contains two oxygen atoms. Besides, a new spectral feature associated to an intrinsic defect was also observed, with four prominent lines (especially at 594 nm). Finally, the thermal formation and stability of oxygen centres in diamond presented here are important for the identification of the atomic structure of defects such as the ST1 and possible O2Vx complex by means of ab initio calculations. Indeed, the formation energies and charge states of defect centres are easier to compute than the full energy level scheme, which to date still remains unsuccessful regarding the ST1 centre.