Long coherence times at 300 K for nitrogen-vacancy center spins in diamond grown by chemical vapor deposition

Electron-spin-echo experiments reveal phase-memory times as long as 58 μs at 300 K for nitrogen-vacancy centers in chemical vapor deposition (CVD) single crystals. The spins were optically polarized and optically detected. Two high-quality CVD samples were studied. From the current results, it is not clear whether these phase-memory times represent a fundamental limit or are limited by an external source of decoherence.