Preferential orientation of NV defects in CVD diamond films grown on (113)-oriented substrates

•Thick (113)-grown diamond layers exhibit high crystalline quality.•Nitrogen doping of (113)-grown layers can be achieved in a wide range.•NV defects exhibit a partial preferential orientation of 73%.•Out-of-plane NVs are preferentially incorporated.•NVs in (113)-grown material exhibit long coherence times.

Thick CVD diamond layers were successfully grown on (113)-oriented substrates. They exhibited smooth surface morphologies and a crystalline quality comparable to (100) electronic grade material, and much better than (111)-grown layers. High growth rates (15–50 μm/h) were obtained while nitrogen doping could be achieved in a fairly wide range without seriously imparting crystalline quality. Electron spin resonance measurements were carried out to determine NV centers orientation and concluded that one specific orientation has an occurrence probability of 73% when (100)-grown layers show an equal distribution in the 4 possible directions. A spin coherence time of around 270 μs was measured which is equivalent to that reported for material with similar isotopic purity. Although a higher degree of preferential orientation was achieved with (111)-grown layers (almost 100%), the ease of growth and post-processing of the (113) orientation make it a potentially useful material for magnetometry or other quantum mechanical applications.

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