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Bulletin of the American Physical Society

Nonblinking green emission from single H3 color centers in nanodiamonds

Jui‐Hung Hsu, Wei-De Su, Kai-Lin Yang, Yan‐Kai Tzeng, Huan‐Cheng Chang

Published Mar 19, 2013• 0 citations
OpenAlex

Abstract

This work investigates the emission properties of single color centers in natural diamond nanoparticles for potential use as single photon sources and photostable biomarkers. Two emitters, H3 and H4, were identified by their sharp zero-phonon lines at 503 nm and 496 nm, respectively, in the photoluminescence spectra. Using a modified Hanbury Brown and Twiss setup, we observed complete photon antibunching for the H3 center. No fluorescence blinking was detected for a single H3 emitter on the ms timescale, indicating weak coupling between the electronic transition A11↔B11 and adjacent metastable states of this nitrogen-vacancy-nitrogen point defect.

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This work investigates the emission properties of single color centers in natural diamond nanoparticles for potential use as single photon sources and photostable biomarkers. Two emitters, H3 and H4, were identified by their sharp zero-phonon lines at 503 nm and 496 nm, respectively, in the photoluminescence spectra. Using a modified Hanbury Brown and Twiss setup, we observed complete photon antibunching for the H3 center. No fluorescence blinking was detected for a single H3 emitter on the ms timescale, indicating weak coupling between the electronic transition A11↔B11 and adjacent metastable states of this nitrogen-vacancy-nitrogen point defect.
This work investigates the emission properties of single color centers in natural diamond nanoparticles for potential use as single photon sources and photostable biomarkers. Two emitters, H3 and H4, were identified by their sharp zero-phonon lines at 503 nm and 496 nm, respectively, in the photoluminescence spectra. Using a modified Hanbury Brown and Twiss setup, we observed complete photon antibunching for the H3 center. No fluorescence blinking was detected for a single H3 emitter on the ms timescale, indicating weak coupling between the electronic transition A11↔B11 and adjacent metastable states of this nitrogen-vacancy-nitrogen point defect.
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.
Fluorescent emitters in diamond are considered to be a valuable resource for fields such as quantum communication, quantum photonics, and biological imaging. In this paper, we report a wide range of narrow bandwidth ( ~ 1.5 nm) spectral emission lines arising from different color centers at room temperature. The defects were created by chemical vapor deposition of thin diamond films grown on silica substrates seeded with nanoparticles of diamond and nickel. These fluorescent lines also possess single or few centers photon statistics. We correlate the zero-phonon lines, observed using confocal microscopy, with previously identified nickel-related centers which have been observed in high-pressure high-temperature diamond, with a Si/Ni complex and silicon vacancy defects. We compare our findings with recent results demonstrating single-photon emission in diamond associated with nickel-related centers to clarify and summarize previous studies concerning this specific dopant. The great variety of emission lines observed in the synthesized material, mainly associated with nickel-related centers, could be an important resource for applications relying on the presence of several emitters of single photons in the same sample. Moreover, the possibility of mass production of these centers in nanodiamonds in colloidal suspension may provide an important resource for biomarking and microscopy.
We report the photoluminescence characteristics of a colour centre in diamond grown by plasma-assisted chemical vapour deposition. The colour centre emits with a sharp zero-phonon line at 2.330 eV (λ=532 nm) and a lifetime of 3.3 ns, thus offering potential for a high-speed single-photon source with green emission. It displays a vibronic emission spectrum with a Huang–Rhys parameter of 2.48 at 77 K. Hanbury–Brown and Twiss measurements reveal that the electronic level structure of the defect includes a metastable state that can be populated from the optically excited state.
Defects in diamond have evolved as unique object for their potential application for Optical imaging and Nano-photonics. High pressure high temperature (HPHT) grown type-Ib diamond particles were milled down to the size of ~ 80 nm and purified to remove iron & graphitic carbon impurities and irradiated with 35 KeV He+ ions to create vacancies in the diamond lattice. Vacancies diffuse close to substitutional nitrogen impurities of nano-diamond particles upon thermal treatment. Characteristic sharp emission of NV centers were observed at 575.5 nm and 637.9 nm corresponding to NV° and NV− charged states in addition to a broad emission in the range 550-750 nm. Structural and photo-physical behavior of these fluorescent diamonds was found to depend on the method of purification adopted. Samples purified through acid reflux were found suitable for bio-imaging applications while, sample purified through air oxidation shows properties desirable for Nano-photonic applications. Photon-correlation measurements of emission from individual diamond nanoparticles using Hanbury Brown and Twiss interferometer (HBT) shows anti-bunching curve with g2(t)= 0 confirming their suitability as single photon source. Such sources of indistinguishable photons are highly desirable for quantum computation and quantum optics applications.
Fluorescent emitters in nanodiamonds are considered to be a valuable resource for emerging fields such as quantum communication, quantum photonics and biological imaging. In this paper we report a wide range of narrow bandwidth spectral emission lines arising from different color centers at room temperature. We associate the zero phonon lines, observed using confocal microscopy, with previously identified nickel-related centers in high pressure high temperature diamond, with a Si/Ni complex and silicon vacancy defects. In particular we show the first observation of a 850 nm emission in diamond with single photon signature, indicating the potential for diamond to harbor infrared single-photon sources. Index Terms diamond defects, single-photon emission, confocal microscopy.