Leyla Çolakerol Arslan
Gebze Technical University
“Laser-driven engineering of vacancy and color-center defects in diamond”
Abstract
Nitrogen-vacancy (NV) and silicon-vacancy (SiV) centers in diamond are promising platforms for quantum sensing, photonics, and emerging quantum technologies, but their controlled formation and spatial engineering remain challenging. We investigate nanosecond-pulsed 1064 nm laser defect engineering in type IIa CVD diamond using photoluminescence and positron annihilation lifetime spectroscopy. Laser irradiation modifies vacancy-, nitrogen-, and hydrogen-related defect populations, enhancing NV⁰ and NV⁻ emission and producing systematic changes in vacancy-type defect signatures consistent with vacancy migration, defect dissociation, and aggregation. In a complementary experiment, irradiation of a silicon-coated diamond surface enables silicon incorporation into the lattice and formation of SiV centers, identified by their characteristic photoluminescence near 738 nm. Together, these results demonstrate that nanosecond laser irradiation provides a localized route for both restructuring the intrinsic defect landscape of diamond and introducing selected impurities to create optically active color centers.
Prof. Leyla C.Arslan’s research spans laser-driven defect engineering in diamond, voltage-controlled magnetism in multiferroic heterostructures, Heusler compounds, and metal-oxide gas sensors. She received her Ph.D. from Boston University and conducted research at Brookhaven and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratories using synchrotron-based spectroscopy to study nitrides and functional oxides. She joined Gebze Technical University in 2010, where she established the Nanomagnetism and Spintronics Research Laboratory.
Date: 7 October 2026, Wednesday
Time: 15:30
Place: SA-240
All interested are cordially invited.