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Research in Optical Sciences

Nanodiamonds for Integrated Quantum Technology: Charm and Challenge

Janik Wolters, Andreas Wolfgang Schell, Nikola Sadzak, Tim Schröder, Max Schoengen, Jürgen Probst, Bernd Löchel, Oliver J. Benson

Published Jan 1, 2012• 1 citation
Publisher

Abstract

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.

DOI
10.1364/qim.2012.qw1b.3

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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.
Point defects in diamond, particularly nitrogen-vacancy (NV) centers, have emerged as powerful tools for a broad range of quantum technologies. These defects are promising candidates for quantum information science, serving as deterministic single-photon sources and solid-state quantum memories. They have also been employed as nanoscale quantum sensors to detect various physical quantities, including magnetic fields, electric fields, and temperature, owing to their long spin coherence time at room temperature. Development of these diamond-based quantum technologies has been rapidly boosted by a recent quantum leap in nanofabrication technologies for high-quality single-crystal diamond. Incorporating these color centers into diamond nanostructures with mature integrated photonics provides a promising route to build scalable and practical systems for quantum applications. This review discusses recent progress and challenges in the hybrid integration of diamond color centers on cutting-edge photonic platforms. Nitrogen-vacancy centers in diamond have emerged as powerful tools for a broad range of quantum technologies. This review discusses recent progress and challenges in the hybrid integration of diamond color centers on cutting-edge photonic platforms.
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.
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 nitrogen vacancy (NV) defect center in diamond is one of the most promising candidates for future solid state quantum technologies. Starting with recent experiments on the demonstration of fundamental quantum effects, like the quantum Zeno effect on a single NV center, theoretical studies on the implementation of a fundamental cavity assisted two-qubit quantum gate are presented. These studies outline a route towards deterministic quantum information processing on a realistic solid state platform, considering in particular radiative dephasing and spectral diffusion.
Development of quantum information processing requires realization of solid state structures able to manipulate light or matter quantum bits. One of the promising candidates for been active elements of such solid-state platform are color centers in diamond. The most famous nitrogen-vacancy color center has number of attractive features and found a lot of applications in sensing and imaging. Still, it has number of considerable disadvantages, among which it sensitivity to the surface damages and thus its incompatibility with nanostructures. On another side implementation of nano- and micro- structures enabled considerable progress in manipulation of light quanta. In particular photonic crystal cavities allowed to realize strong coupling of cavity and spin system. This led to demonstration of efficient light collection and realization of simple quantum gates with artificial or real atoms. Novel color centers such as silicon-vacancy or germanium-vacancy color center due to inversion symmetry of the electron structure are not sensitive to the surface damages and presence of surface nearby. Thus, those are perfect candidates for been combined with photonic crystal structures. Novel technologies enabled growing of the nanodiamonds of ultra-small size having well-defined color center inside. Along with techniques to position those precisely on the nano- and micro structures these achievements opened opportunity to integrate high-fines photonic-crystal cavities with the germanium-vacancy containing nanocrystals thus forming fully solid-state platform for quantum manipulation of light. In my talk I will describe our progress towards realization of this ambitious goal.
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.