Placement of Nitrogen‐Vacancy‐Centers in Diamond Through Chemical Vapor Deposition Growth Techniques

The positioning of nitrogen‐vacancy (NV) centers is critical for quantum technologies such as quantum sensing and computing. NV incorporation during chemical vapor deposition growth can provide a defect‐free, well‐controlled environment, yielding high spin‐coherence times and stable color centers. Various reactor designs that allow for controlled gas‐switching have been developed, and process conditions have been optimized to achieve low growth rates, enabling placement of single NV centers or NV ensembles during growth or post‐growth at defined depths and in specified regions. This is primarily achieved by fabricating delta‐doped layers—nanoscale‐thick dopant layers within the diamond. In addition to using the as‐grown layers, these structures can be further processed by lithography or implantation methods to laterally position NV centers at a defined depth, even in complex diamond structures. Under suitable growth conditions, NV centers can also be positioned on prepatterned microstructures by preferentially forming delta‐doped layers on defined facets. For lateral positioning on flat surfaces, a similar approach can localize NVs. This article describes and compares these methods and outlines future perspectives in the context of quantum technologies.