Photoluminescence tomography as a method to image point-defect distributions in crystals: Nitrogen-vacancy pairs in synthetic diamonds

The distribution of grown-in nitrogen-vacancy pairs in synthetic Ib diamond crystals has been imaged by means of a new photoluminescence tomographic technique. Using this method, local changes in luminescence intensity introduced by these defect centers were mapped by means of a laser-scanning microtomographic arrangement. It was found that the spatial variation in nitrogen-vacancy pair concentrations within a crystal qualitatively correlates with the nitrogen impurity distribution.