The project will make use of the resources available at the Princeton Collaborative Research facility (PCRF) with an aim to tailor the Penning discharge to gain atomic scale control over the structure of a diamond surface. Based on the central hypothesis that atomically smooth nitrogen terminated diamond with (111) facets can achieve record electron spin coherence times of near surface NV centers, the project will prepare atomically smooth diamond surfaces with nitrogen termination. The Penning discharge reduces the kinetic energy of ions that impinge on the diamond substrate to < 2 eV, which eliminates ion induced roughening that typically occurs during plasma functionalization of surfaces. The work will seek to evaluate whether such surfaces can be nitridated using the Penning Discharge without inducing roughening of the surface. The proposed project will test the ability of the Penning discharge to prepare smooth, nitrogen terminated diamond surfaces for application in quantum information sciences and magnetic resonance sensing. Ultimate goal is to prepare atomically smooth diamonds via transition metal catalyzed etching and to measure the electron spin coherence of NV centers near those surfaces. Such surfaces can accelerate the potential of next generation quantum technologies.