Isotopically varying spectral features of silicon vacancy in diamond

Understand

The silicon-vacancy centre (SiV) in diamond has interesting vibronic features.

• We demonstrate that the zero phonon line position can be used to reliably identify the silicon isotope present in a single centre.
• This is of interest for quantum information applications since only the silicon 29 isotope has nuclear spin.
• In addition, we demonstrate that the 64 meV line is due to a local vibrational mode of the silicon atom.