Understanding Surface-Induced Decoherence of NV Centers in Diamond

Nitrogen vacancy centers (NV) in proximity to diamond surfaces are promising nanoscale quantum sensors. However, their coherence properties are negatively affected by magnetic and electric surface noise, whose origin and detailed impact have remained elusive. Using atomistic models of diamond surfaces derived with density functional theory, together with decoherence time calculations with cluster correlation expansion methods, we quantify the effects of surface crystallographic orientation and functionalization, and of the density of unpaired electrons on the NV Hahn-echo time T₂. We determine a crossover depth at which T₂ ceases to be limited by surface nuclear spins and recovers the bulk-limited value. We find that for static surface-electron baths, the ratio between the NV depth and the separation between surface electron spins determines a transition from fast-fluctuating to quasi-static noise, leading to a dependence of T₂ on orientation for specific surfaces. We also find that the modulation of T₂ by spin-phonon relaxations leads to motional-narrowing at sub-microsecond relaxation times. Importantly, our calculations show that it is only when accounting for surface-spin in-sequence hopping that measured T₂ values as a function of depth can be reproduced, thus highlighting the importance of hopping-mediated models to describe the surface spin noise affecting NV sensors. Overall, our work provides clear guidelines for engineering diamond surfaces to achieve enhanced NV coherence for quantum sensing and information processing applications.