Nadine Leisgang wins the Nano Image Award 2021!

Nadine Leisgang received the Nano Image Award 2021 for the optical micrograph image of a gated van der Waals heterostructure. The device consists of two monolayers of transition metal dichalcogenides encapsulated between insulating hexagonal boron nitride flakes. Direct gold contacts allow tuning the carrier concentration in the optically active layers in the middle of the structure. Few-layer graphene sheets on the top and bottom of the stack serve as local gates to apply an electric field across the device.

This image reflects the complexity and – at the same time – the beauty of the fabrication of van der Waals heterostructures.

Nadine Leisgang wins the Nano Image Award 2021!

Laser writing of low-charge-noise nitrogen-vacancy centers in diamond

In our recent publication in ACS Photonics, we report on the pulsed-laser-induced generation of high-quality nitrogen-vacancy (NV) centers in diamond facilitated by a solid-immersion lens (SIL). The SIL enables laser writing at energies as low as 5.8 nJ per pulse and allows vacancies to be formed close to a diamond surface without inducing surface graphitization. We present samples in which NV center arrays were laser-written across the full diamond thickness, all presenting narrow optical linewidth distributions with means down to 62.1 MHz. The linewidths include the effect of long-term spectral diffusion induced by a 532 nm repump laser for charge-state stabilization, underlining the extremely low charge-noise environment of the created color centers.

Laser writing of low-charge-noise nitrogen-vacancy centers in diamond