Quantum information systems are reliant on the fidelity of the spectra of their qubits. Diamond nitrogen vacancy centers present many of the best traits among qubit candidates and show promise for scalable quantum computing. Preferential lattice orientation of these nitrogen vacancy centers is a technically difficult, yet essential step to improve the signal to noise ratio of quantum sensing and the efficiency of quantum computing. My research seeks to test our theoretical knowledge of nitrogen vacancy center orientation changes through annealing diamonds at high temperature. I present the techniques I use to return to the same single atomic defects to compare, through confocal microscopy, orientation changes as a function of annealing temperature. I show our preliminary data in relation to the nitrogen vacancy density distributions and orientation changes throughout the diamond to test current theory regarding vacancy diffusion through the diamond lattice near substitutional nitrogen. Finally, I discuss some unexpected results from our first run of this experiment and share our remaining questions and future efforts to preferentially orient nitrogen vacancy centers.  This research is contributing to progress through the Noisy Intermediate-scale Quantum era with reduction of noise generated by local strain near qubits and better signal-to-noise for quantum sensors.

The Standard Model of elementary particle physics (SM) describes a connection between electromagnetic and radioactive decays known as the Conservation of Vector Current. One area of new physics research is in the formation of additional currents that are not in the SM called “Second Class Currents” (SCC). It is thought that these could possibly produce a breaking of the Conservation of Vector Current. An experiment performed previously at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) showed evidence for a large breaking of the expected connection between the beta and electromagnetic decay of 22Na. Although one possibility for explaining the discrepancy is to attribute it to the SCC’s mentioned above it is also possible to explain it without introducing new physics. The electromagnetic transition in 22Na, which has so far been assumed to be purely of magnetic character (M1), could actually have a (so-far unexpected) contribution of electric character (E2). We ran an experiment to determine the E2/M1 ratio, by measuring the angular distribution of gamma rays from oriented 22Na. The orientation is naturally obtained when producing the excited 22Na state via a 21Ne(p, γ) resonance at ~7.8 MeV, which is known to predominantly feed the analog 2+ state in 22Na. The decay goes from 21Ne with a certain momentum, p, to 22Na via emission of electromagnetic radiation (γ: gamma ray emission). The data will be collected with five Germanium detectors at different angles simultaneously.