Samuel Ruth

Major: Physics
Mentors: Dr. Rachel Schoeppner, Professor Ania Jayich

Reduction of Ozone-Induced Etching in E-Beam-Produced Nitrogen Vacancies

Nitrogen-vacancy (NV) centers in diamond are promising platforms for quantum sensing applications due to their exceptional coherence properties. Electron beam (e-beam) irradiation has emerged as a cost-effective and scalable alternative to traditional transmission electron microscopy (TEM) methods for NV center creation. However, ozone-induced etching during irradiation can degrade diamond surface quality and reduce yield. In this study, we investigate methods to mitigate ozone-related surface damage during e-beam processing. Electronic-grade diamond samples were irradiated under varied conditions designed to suppress etching, including the use of conductive cooling substrates and silver coatings to scavenge ozone. Post-irradiation, atomic force microscopy (AFM) was used to quantify surface roughness as a proxy for etching damage. The most effective mitigation strategies were then applied to a series of samples irradiated for varying durations to evaluate NV center yield as a function of dose. Our findings offer practical improvements for scalable NV center fabrication with minimized surface degradation.