Geometric estimation of NV charge-state contributions from a low-dimensional spectral representation

Abstract:Nitrogen-vacancy (NV) centers in diamond exist in neutral (NV0) and negatively charged (NV-) states, and quantifying their respective photoluminescence (PL) contributions is important for charge-state-based measurements. Existing methods either require additional experimental control or may suffer from limited physical identifiability. Here, we introduce a geometric method for determining NV charge-state contributions from PL spectra acquired at different excitation intensities. Each spectrum is mapped into a low-dimensional space through broadband spectral weighting, where changes in the relative NV0 and NV- contributions trace a one-dimensional trajectory. Zero-phonon-line (ZPL) information from two spectra physically calibrates this trajectory, enabling the NV-PL contribution to be determined by geometric projection. Measurements on two bulk single-crystal diamond samples yielded NV- contributions in close agreement with those obtained using an independent dual-excitation reference-spectrum method, with root-mean-square errors of 1.11 and 0.31 percentage points. Under additive spectral noise, the proposed method exhibited more than an order of magnitude less variation than a ZPL-only method. Fisher-information analysis further showed that the three-dimensional CIE XYZ representation retained approximately 81% of the information about the NV- contribution available in the full spectrum. These results establish a physically calibrated approach to low-dimensional spectral estimation that combines reduced experimental overhead with robust parameter estimation and provides a general framework for spectral sensing governed by a small number of physical degrees of freedom.

arXiv:2609.38739 [quant-ph]

(or arXiv:2609.38739v1 [quant-ph] for this version)

https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2609.38739 Focus to learn more arXiv-issued DOI via DataCite (pending registration)

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