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arXiv:1006.2093 · Applied Physics Letters

Strongly enhanced photon collection from diamond defect centers under microfabricated integrated solid immersion lenses

John Patrick Hadden, J. P. Harrison, A. C. Stanley‐Clarke, Luca Marseglia, Y.-L. D. Ho, Brian Patton, Jeremy L. O’Brien, John Rarity

Published Dec 13, 2010• 292 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

The efficiency of photon collection from optically active defect centers in bulk diamond is greatly reduced by refraction at the diamond-air interface. We report on the fabrication and measurement of a geometrical solution to the problem; integrated solid immersion lenses (SILs) etched directly into the surface of diamond. An increase of a factor of 10 was observed in the saturated count-rate from a single negatively charged nitrogen-vacancy (NV−) within a 5 μm diameter SIL compared with NV−’s under a planar surface in the same crystal. Such a system is potentially scalable and easily adaptable to other defect centers in bulk diamond.

DOI
10.1063/1.3519847

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The efficiency of photon collection from optically active defect centers in bulk diamond is greatly reduced by refraction at the diamond-air interface. We report on the fabrication and measurement of a geometrical solution to the problem; integrated solid immersion lenses (SILs) etched directly into the surface of diamond. An increase of a factor of 10 was observed in the saturated count-rate from a single negatively charged nitrogen-vacancy (NV−) within a 5 μm diameter SIL compared with NV−’s under a planar surface in the same crystal. Such a system is potentially scalable and easily adaptable to other defect centers in bulk diamond.
The negatively charged nitrogen-vacancy (NV−\mathrm{NV}^-NV−) defect in diamond can be used for quantum information processing via the readout of the radiative decay of the excited state into the ground state. The large refractive index mismatch of diamond and air causes low photon extraction efficiency due to total internal reflection losses. Here, we investigate the photon extraction numerically and report additive solid immersion lenses (SILs) consisting of the high-k dielectric yttria-stabilized-zirconia (YSZ) for surface modification and enhanced light extraction of shallow implanted nitrogen-vacancy centers. We demonstrate an average increase of 63% in saturation intensity using a scalable bottum up room temperature pulsed laser deposition and photolithography structurization process. The average necessary laser intensity for saturation is reduced by 33% by the SILs.
Extracting photons from defect centers is challenging due to the high refractive index of typical substrates. For nitrogen-vacancy centers in diamond, reaching saturation count rates above 2.5 × 10 5 counts/s so far requires nanofabricated optics, such as diamond waveguides or solid immersion lenses. Here, we present an experimental and theoretical study of defect center emission at unmodified planar dielectric surfaces by quantitative back-focal-plane imaging and analytical modeling. Our results indicate that photon count rates approaching those of nanofabricated optics can also be achieved by oil-immersion optics. This is due to a dielectric antenna effect, which directs the majority of the emission into the substrate within a narrow angle window suitable for back-side collection. By quantification of the collection efficiency of back-side detection, our work also enables a novel measurement method for the quantum efficiency of shallow defect centers. Its result challenges established values. Possible reasons for the discrepancy are discussed.
A negatively charged lead-vacancy (PbV-) center in diamond is a novel quantum system which can be operated at a high temperature above 4 K owing to its large ground state splitting. To unlock the quantum properties of the PbV- center, the enhancement of the fluorescence intensity is a key issue. Here, we demonstrate enhanced emission from PbV- centers by a factor of approximately 10 using solid immersion lenses (SILs) fabricated on rough diamond surface caused by high-temperature anneal over 2000°C. Resonant excitation reveals the narrow emission close to the transform-limited linewidth. Furthermore, we demonstrate two-photon interference using one single PbV- center in an SIL. This enhanced emission and indistinguishability will lead to further development of the PbV- center towards quantum network node applications.
Single-photon sources represent a key enabling technology in quantum optics, and single color centers in diamond are a promising platform to serve this purpose, due to their high quantum efficiency and photostability at room temperature. The widely studied nitrogen-vacancy (NV) centers are characterized by several limitations, thus other defects have recently been considered, with a specific focus of centers emitting in the near-infra red (NIR). In the present work, we report on the coupling of native NIR-emitting centers in high-quality single-crystal diamond with solid immersion lens (SIL) structures fabricated by focused ion beam (FIB) lithography. The reported improvements in terms of light collection efficiency make the proposed system an ideal platform for the development of single-photon emitters with appealing photophysical and spectral properties.
Laser-written Nitrogen Vacancy (NV−) centers are combined with transfer-printed GaN micro-lenses to increase fluorescent light collection by reducing total internal reflection at the planar diamond interface. We find a 2x improvement of fluorescent light collection using a 0.95 NA air objective at room temperature, in agreement with FDTD simulations. The nature of the transfer print micro-lenses leads to better performance with lower Numerical Aperture (NA) collection, as confirmed by results with a 0.5NA air objective which show improvement greater than 5x. The approach is attractive for scalable integrated quantum technologies.
Efficient collection of fluorescence light is essential for all optically adressable qubit platforms. For the nitrogen-vacancy (NV) center in diamond, the high refractive index of the host medium poses a major challenge as it limits the solid angle under which fluorescence light can leave the crystal. To enhance collection efficiency from single NV centers, we design and simulate micro-optical elements that shall be directly fabricated on the diamond surface using two-photon polymerization. Several optical designs and photoresists are evaluated for their expected coupling efficiency into single-mode fibers and their tolerance to fabrication errors. Additionally, an analytical solution for single lens collimation of the emission of a point source in diamond at a specific wavelength is presented, as well as considerations regarding the degradation of wavefront quality in multi-wavelength Fresnel designs.