On the diffusion of NV defects in diamond

Besides their importance for quantum information processing, NV defects are crucial agents for the diffusion and aggregation of nitrogen in diamond. In the absence of transition metals, it is thought that the first stage of nitrogen aggregation, where close neighbour nitrogen pairs are formed, is mediated by NV defects. Here we use density functional theory to explore the barriers to NV diffusion. We conclude that the barrier is around 5 eV when there is a ready source of vacancies and that this barrier is weakly dependent on pressure.