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IEEE/LEOS Summer Topical Meetings

Colour centres in diamond as practical single-photon sources

Jean-François Roch, V. Jacques, E Wu, Frédéric Grosshans, François Treussart, Alain Aspect, Philippe Grangier

Published Jan 1, 2006• 0 citations
Publisher

Abstract

The paper describes a "turn-key" single-photon source based on nitrogen-vacancy (N-V) colour centre photoluminescence inside dispersed diamond nanocrystals. The authors have used the emitted single photons to realize a wave-particle delayed-choice experiment based on a Mach-Zehnder interferometer. The diamond-based single-photon source is also to open-air quantum key distribution (QKD).

DOI
10.1109/leosst.2006.1693993

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The paper describes a "turn-key" single-photon source based on nitrogen-vacancy (N-V) colour centre photoluminescence inside dispersed diamond nanocrystals. The authors have used the emitted single photons to realize a wave-particle delayed-choice experiment based on a Mach-Zehnder interferometer. The diamond-based single-photon source is also to open-air quantum key distribution (QKD).
We report an almost ideal realization of wheeler's "delayed-choice" experiment where the light pulses are true single photons, allowing unambiguous which-way measurements. The clock-triggered single-photon source at the heart of the experiment, previously developed for quantum key distribution, is based on the pulsed, optically excited photoluminescence of a single N-V colour centre in a diamond nanocrystal. This system, which consists in a substitutional nitrogen atom (N) associated to a vacancy (V) in an adjacent lattice site of the diamond crystalline matrix, has an unsurpassed efficiency and photostability at room temperature.
We present a full implementation of a quantum key distribution (QKD) system with a single photon source, operating at night in open air. The single photon source at the heart of the functional and reliable setup relies on the pulsed excitation of a single nitrogen-vacancy color center in diamond nanocrystal. We tested the effect of attenuation on the polarized encoded photons for inferring longer distance performance of our system. For strong attenuation, the use of pure single photon states gives measurable advantage over systems relying on weak attenuated laser pulses. The results are in good agreement with theoretical models developed to assess QKD security.
For applications in Quantum Information and Quantum Key Distribution an on-demand source of single photons is desirable because absolute security is of utmost importance. Photons are quantum systems; hence encoding information onto them offers a secure alternative to classical cryptography as a measurement cannot be performed on photons without altering their properties. The Nitrogen Vacancy (NV) centre in diamond is a good source of such photons. It is photo-stable and its location in diamond offers robustness. It has zero phonon line at 637 nm and its relative short luminescence life-time of about 12 ns makes it suitable for generating single photons. This thesis covers two aspects: Firstly the characterization of defects in diamonds and subsequent selection of diamonds suitable for use in the single photon setup and secondly, the development of the experimental setup for single photon generation. This thesis sets out to describe the development of a laboratory based single photon source using the NV centre in diamond. For this purpose a suite of diamond samples were selected and subjected to various spectroscopic tests in order to characterize and classify the samples, especially the presence of the NV centres and their concentrations. The characterization of the defects was done through the use of the following spectroscopic techniques: UltravioletVisible-Near infrared spectroscopy, Infrared spectroscopy, Electron Spin Resonance and Photoluminescence. These techniques enabled us to understand the types and origins of crystal defects that were present in the diamond samples used in this study and to use this to select diamonds that are most suitable for use in generation of single photons. The experimental setup for single photon generation using the NV centre is based on a confocal microscope arrangement. Single NV centres were identified by measuring the second order autocorrelation function of the fluorescence light emitted by the sample when illuminated with a laser. This measurement was done using a Hanbury-Brown Twiss (HBT) interferometer.
The nanodiamond technology has developed the first packaged, single-photon source that operates at room temperature and in well-lit environments, where an ideal single-photon source produces one photon per pulse. These sources are key components for building quantum information systems that can implement quantum-key distribution (QKD) for ultrasecure communications. The optically active color centers in diamond have been found to exhibit attractive optical properties through the nitrogen-vacancy (N-V) center emission ranging 600 to 750 nm, and that have realized the practical sources of single-photon emission. Photo statistics has to be determined to measure the performance of a single-photon source, which can be measured by the autocorrelation function g2 (0) using Hanbury-Brown and Twiss interferometer. The results showed that the SPS 1.01 demonstrates stable single-photon performance without requirement of recalibration.
We describe the implementation of a quantum key distribution (QKD) system using a single-photon source, operating at night in open air. The single-photon source at the heart of the functional and reliable set-up relies on the pulsed excitation of a single nitrogen-vacancy colour centre in a diamond nanocrystal. We tested the effect of attenuation on the polarized encoded photons for inferring the longer distance performance of our system. For strong attenuation, the use of pure single-photon states gives measurable advantage over systems relying on weak attenuated laser pulses. The results are in good agreement with theoretical models developed to assess QKD security.
We report the realization of a solid-state triggered single-photon source with narrow emission in the near infrared at room temperature. It is based on the photoluminescence of a single nickel–nitrogen NE8 colour centre in a chemical vapour deposited diamond nanocrystal. Stable single-photon emission has been observed in the photoluminescence under both continuous-wave and pulsed excitations. The realization of this source represents a step forward in the application of diamond-based single-photon sources to quantum key distribution (QKD) under practical operating conditions.