Fu, Kai-Mei CSantori, CharlesBarclay, Paul E.Rogers, LachlanManson, NeilBeausoleil, R.2015-12-100031-9007http://hdl.handle.net/1885/55722The optical transition linewidth and emission polarization of single nitrogen-vacancy (NV) centers are measured from 5 K to room temperature. Interexcited state population relaxation is shown to broaden the zero-phonon line and both the relaxation and linewidth are found to follow a T5 dependence for T<100K. This dependence indicates that the dynamic Jahn-Teller effect is the dominant dephasing mechanism for the NV optical transitions at low temperatures.Keywords: Dephasing; Dynamic Jahn-Teller effects; Low temperatures; Nitrogen-vacancy center; Room temperature; State population; Zero-phonon line; Vacancies; Optical transitions200910.1103/PhysRevLett.103.2564042016-02-24