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arXiv:1008.4736 · New Journal of Physics

Single photon emission from silicon-vacancy colour centres in chemical vapour deposition nano-diamonds on iridium

Elke Neu, David Steinmetz, Janine Riedrich‐Möller, Stefan Gsell, Martin Fischer, M. Schreck, Christoph Becher

Published Feb 21, 2011• 515 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

We introduce a process for the fabrication of high-quality, spatially isolated nano-diamonds on iridium via microwave-plasma-assisted chemical vapour deposition (CVD) growth. We perform spectroscopy of single silicon-vacancy (SiV) centres produced during the growth of the nano-diamonds. The colour centres exhibit extraordinary narrow zero-phonon-lines down to 0.7 nm at room temperature. Single photon count rates up to 4.8 Mcps at saturation make these SiV centres the brightest diamond-based single photon sources to date. We measure for the first time the fine structure of a single SiV centre, thus confirming the atomic composition of the investigated colour centres.

DOI
10.1088/1367-2630/13/2/025012

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We introduce a process for the fabrication of high-quality, spatially isolated nano-diamonds on iridium via microwave-plasma-assisted chemical vapour deposition (CVD) growth. We perform spectroscopy of single silicon-vacancy (SiV) centres produced during the growth of the nano-diamonds. The colour centres exhibit extraordinary narrow zero-phonon-lines down to 0.7 nm at room temperature. Single photon count rates up to 4.8 Mcps at saturation make these SiV centres the brightest diamond-based single photon sources to date. We measure for the first time the fine structure of a single SiV centre, thus confirming the atomic composition of the investigated colour centres.
We study single silicon vacancy (SiV) centres in chemical vapour deposition (CVD) nanodiamonds on iridium as well as an ensemble of SiV centres in a high-quality, low-stress CVD diamond film by using temperature-dependent luminescence spectroscopy in the temperature range 5–295 K. We investigate in detail the temperature-dependent fine structure of the zero-phonon line (ZPL) of the SiV centres. The ZPL transition is affected by inhomogeneous as well as temperature-dependent homogeneous broadening and blue shifts by about 20 cm −1 upon cooling from room temperature to 5 K. We employ excitation power-dependent g (2) measurements to explore the temperature-dependent internal population dynamics of single SiV centres and infer mostly temperature-independent dynamics.
This thesis is focused on the production and characterization of diamond films and diamond nanoparticles containing custom colour centres. These defects intentionally created into the diamond lattice are promising candidates for single photon sources, and are becoming more important for quantum information technologies as photons can carry quantum information over long distances. With outstanding properties such as up to 80% of the photons emitted into the zero phonon line (ZPL), single photon count rates up to several Mcps under continuous excitation and a narrow ZPL at room temperature, the SiV centre has recently attracted more attention. Although different approaches for the creation of colour centres have been reported, this thesis details the creation of SiV centres by chemical vapour deposition. Colour centres are created through the incorporation of impurities during diamond growth. While Si doping can easily be achieved due to plasma etching of Si substrates or the incorporation of a Si solid source inside the reactor vacuum chamber, controlling the exact amount of Si present in the gas phase or effectively incorporated is still a handicap. Chapters five and six show comprehensive studies performed towards the creation of diamond nanoparticles with single emitters. Control over the Si content within the gas phase is achieved using silane as gas source. The subsequent milling of the diamond films hosting the SiV centres and their inclusion into a stable solution, will facilitate SiV coupling and incorporation into cavities or emission-enhancer devices.
Tin-Vacancy (Sn-V) colour centres in diamond have a spin coherence time in the millisecond range at temperatures of 2 K, so they are promising to be used in diamond-based quantum optical devices. However, the incorporation of large Sn atoms into a dense diamond lattice is a non-trivial problem. The objective of our work is to use microwave plasma-assisted chemical vapour deposition (CVD) to grow Sn-doped diamond with submicron SnO 2 particles as a solid-state source of impurity. Well-faceted diamond microcrystals with sizes of a few micrometres were formed on AlN substrates. The photoluminescence (PL) signal with zero-phonon line (ZPL) peak for Sn-V centre at ≈620 nm was measured at room temperature (RT) and at 7 K. The peak width (full width at half-maximum) was measured to be 1.1–1.7 nm at RT and ≈0.05 nm at 7 K. The observed variations of ZPL shape and position, in particular, narrowing of PL peak at RT and formation of single-line fine structure at low- T , are attributed to strain in the crystallites. The diamond doping with Sn via CVD process offers a new route to from Sn-V colour centre in the bulk of the diamond crystallites. This article is part of the Theo Murphy meeting issue 'Diamond for quantum applications'.
Single-photon sources are a fundamental element for developing quantum technologies, and sources based on colour centres in diamonds are among the most promising candidates. The well-known nitrogen vacancy centres are characterized by several limitations, and thus few other defects have recently been considered. In the present work, we characterize, in detail, native efficient single colour centres emitting in the near infra-red ( λ = 740–780 nm) in both standard IIa single-crystal and electronic-grade polycrystalline commercial chemical vapour deposited (CVD) diamond samples. In the former case, a high-temperature ( T > 1000 °C) annealing process in vacuum is necessary to induce the formation/activation of luminescent centres with good emission properties, while in the latter case the annealing process has marginally beneficial effects on the number and performance of native centres in commercially available samples. Although displaying significant variability in several photo-physical properties (emission wavelength, emission rate instabilities, saturation behaviours), these centres generally display appealing photophysical properties for applications as single photon sources: short lifetimes (0.7–3 ns), high emission rates (∼50–500 × 10 3 photons s −1 ) and strongly (>95%) polarized light. The native centres are tentatively attributed to impurities incorporated in the diamond crystal during the CVD growth of high-quality type-IIa samples, and offer promising perspectives in diamond-based photonics.
We introduce an advanced material system for the production and spectroscopy of single silicon vacancy (SiV) color centers in diamond. We use microwave plasma chemical vapor deposition to synthesize heteroepitaxial nanodiamonds of approximately 160 nm in lateral size with a thickness of approximately 75 nm. These oriented ``nanoislands'' combine the enhanced fluorescence extraction from subwavelength-sized nanodiamonds with defined crystal orientation. The investigated SiV centers display narrow zero-phonon lines down to 0.7 nm in the wavelength range 730--750 nm. We investigate in detail the phonon coupling and vibronic sidebands of single SiV centers, revealing significant inhomogeneous effects. Polarization measurements reveal polarized luminescence and preferential absorption of linearly polarized light.