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Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics Europe & European Quantum Electronics Conference (CLEO/Europe-EQEC)

Single photon nanophotonics using NV centers in three-dimensional laser-written microstructures

Andreas Wolfgang Schell, Johannes Kaschke, Joachim Fischer, Rico Henze, Janik Wolters, Martin Wegener, Oliver J. Benson

Published May 1, 2013• 1 citation
Publisher

Abstract

Direct integration of single photon emitters into easy-to-fabricate functional microstructures is a major step towards a future quantum optical technology. Because of its photostability and versatile spin properties the nitrogen vacancy center (NV center) in diamond is one of the most promising candidates as source of single photons [1]. One of its drawbacks lies in the properties of its host crystal. Diamond is hard to process and therefore it is difficult to manufacture complex integrated structures in a reliable way. One way to avoid these difficulties is to use nanodiamonds in a so called hybrid approach [2]. Hybrid systems comprise different constituents from different materials. By exploiting the individual advantages of the individual elements it is possible to build systems with properties exceeding the properties of the individual subsystems.

DOI
10.1109/cleoe-iqec.2013.6801440

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•Jan 1, 2009•0 citations
Direct integration of single photon emitters into easy-to-fabricate functional microstructures is a major step towards a future quantum optical technology. Because of its photostability and versatile spin properties the nitrogen vacancy center (NV center) in diamond is one of the most promising candidates as source of single photons [1]. One of its drawbacks lies in the properties of its host crystal. Diamond is hard to process and therefore it is difficult to manufacture complex integrated structures in a reliable way. One way to avoid these difficulties is to use nanodiamonds in a so called hybrid approach [2]. Hybrid systems comprise different constituents from different materials. By exploiting the individual advantages of the individual elements it is possible to build systems with properties exceeding the properties of the individual subsystems.
The development of reliable devices to generate single photons is crucial for applications in quantum cryptography, as well as for fundamental quantum optics experiments. Due to their extremely high photostability at room temperature, optically active defects in solids, the so called color centers, are among the most promising candidates. Single NV (nitrogen-vacancy) centers in diamond have been demonstrated to be able to generate single photons and have already shown advantages compared to attenuated laser pulses in a quantum cryptography experiment. The nitrogen-vacancy center (NV center) in diamond consists of a substitutional nitrogen atom and an adjacent vacancy. This complex exhibits an optical transition with a fluorescence lifetime of 11.6 ns. The room temperature spectrum of the NV center consists of the zero-phonon line at 637 nm and broad phononic sidebands with a FWHM of more than 100 nm. Due to the existence of a shelving level the efficiency of the NV center as a single photon source is limited. Additionally, the high diffraction index of bulk diamond restricts the efficiency to collect the fluorescence light.
Defect centers in diamond are regarded as a promising candidate for future solid state quantum technology. In particular the nitrogen vacancy (NV) center attracts researchers attention, as it promises to emit indistinguishable single photons and provides a triplet ground state with ultra long spin coherence times. In particular NV centers in nano diamonds are attractive, since they can be integrated into quantum photonic hybrid devices with nano manipulation techniques. We report on first demonstrations of the integration of NV-centers into photonic hybrid devices, and point out future applications. Beside the striking demonstrations of the integrability, nanodiamonds have several drawbacks. In particular the spectral diffusion of the zero-phonon line is addressed.
Nitrogen-vacancy (NV) centers in nanodiamond are photostable single photon emitters at room temperature and are considered to be promising candidates for integrated nanophotonics and quantum information processing. A successful implementation of NV centers in nanophotonic devices requires knowledge about the photophysical properties of each emitter such as brightness, decay rate and quantum efficiency. Recent reports show that not all NV centers in diamond nanocrystals are identical and indeed show distributions in brightness and decay rate [1,2]. Here, we report on experimental quantification of the quantum efficiency (QE) of individual nanodiamonds containing single NV centers. Additionally, we report on measurements of decay rate and brightness of single nanodiamond NV centers and discuss if/which NV centers are suitable emitters to be integrated in nanophotonic devices.
Quantum communication and quantum metrology established a demand for an accessible solid state systems which can generate a stream of single photons on demand [1]. Although single photon emission has been demonstrated from quantum dots (QD)[1,2], single molecules [3] and nanowires [4], their practical operation is limited by the temperature or photostability. Diamond crystals, however, are the most promising platform for generation of robust, photo-stable, single photons at room temperature [5,6]. Nevertheless, out of more than 500 existing optical centers in diamond only three known centers demonstrated a clear single photon emission: the nitrogen-vacancy complex [6,7], the silicon-vacancy complex [8] and the nickel-nitrogen complex [9,10]. Recent progress in materials science and fabrication techniques of diamond color centers unveiled novel quantum emitters with photo-physical properties surpassing the current mainstream [11,12,13]. Consequently, the versatility of the diamond lattice to host various impurities which give luminescence signals lead to a dramatic discovery of ultra bright single photon emitters operating in the MHz regime [14]. These new centers, comparable with QD in terms of brightness [1], but have the tremendous advantage of their room temperature operation and photo-stability. Furthermore, it opened a new avenue to investigate essentially an unknown group of single photon emitters. A brief description of the fabrication methods and a detailed quantum optical characterization of this class of diamond emitters is the subject of this presentation. In particular we will present the photo-physical properties of a novel family of single photon emitters, most likely originated from Cr impurities within the chemical vapor deposition grown nano-diamond crystals. We concentrate on the typical emission lines in the range of 740 - 790 nm, which exhibit single photon emission with count rate in the range of 0.8-3.2 106 counts/s at the limit of infinite optical excitation power, and life time as short as 1 ns. Even more, some of the emitters exhibit a photon statistics without any photon bunching, indicating a two-level system with unitary quantum efficiency. We will also show preliminary results of a resonant excitation at 4 K. We will highlight future directions to optimize these sources and avenues to investigate the fundamental properties of these centers.