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Nanophotonics

Two‐photon interference from silicon‐vacancy centers in remote nanodiamonds

Richard Waltrich, Marco Klotz, V. Agafonov, Alexander Kubanek

Published Aug 8, 2023• 14 citations
Publisher

Abstract

The generation of indistinguishable photons is a key requirement for solid-state quantum emitters as a viable source for applications in quantum technologies. Restricting the dimensions of the solid-state host to a size well below the wavelength of light emitted by a defect-center enables efficient external optical coupling, for example, for hybrid integration into photonic devices. However, stringent restrictions on the host dimensions result in severe limitations on the spectral properties reducing the indistinguishability of emitted photons. Here, we demonstrate two-photon interference from two negatively charged silicon-vacancy centers located in remote nanodiamonds. The Hong-Ou-Mandel interference efficiency reaches 61 % with a coalescence time window of 0.35 ns. We furthermore show a high yield of pairs of silicon-vacancy centers with indistinguishable optical transitions. Therefore, our work opens new paths in hybrid quantum technology based on indistinguishable single-photon emitters in nanodiamonds.

DOI
10.1515/nanoph-2023-0379

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The generation of indistinguishable photons is a key requirement for solid-state quantum emitters as a viable source for applications in quantum technologies. Restricting the dimensions of the solid-state host to a size well below the wavelength of light emitted by a defect-center enables efficient external optical coupling, for example, for hybrid integration into photonic devices. However, stringent restrictions on the host dimensions result in severe limitations on the spectral properties reducing the indistinguishability of emitted photons. Here, we demonstrate two-photon interference from two negatively charged silicon-vacancy centers located in remote nanodiamonds. The Hong-Ou-Mandel interference efficiency reaches 61 % with a coalescence time window of 0.35 ns. We furthermore show a high yield of pairs of silicon-vacancy centers with indistinguishable optical transitions. Therefore, our work opens new paths in hybrid quantum technology based on indistinguishable single-photon emitters in nanodiamonds.
The generation of indistinguishable photons is a key requirement for solid-state quantum emitters as a viable source for applications in quantum technologies. Restricting the dimensions of the solid-state host to a size well below the wavelength of light emitted by a defect-center enables efficient external optical coupling, for example for hybrid integration into photonic devices. However, stringent restrictions on the host dimensions result in severe limitations on the spectral properties reducing the indistinguishability of emitted photons. Here, we demonstrate two-photon interference from two negatively-charged Silicon-Vacancy centers located in remote nanodiamonds. The Hong-Ou-Mandel interference efficiency reaches 61% with a coalescence time window of 0.35 ns. We furthermore show a high yield of pairs of Silicon-Vacancy centers with indistinguishable optical transitions. Therefore, our work opens new paths in hybrid quantum technology based on indistinguishable single-photon emitters in nanodiamonds.
The realization of quantum networks is based on the entanglement of stationary qubits via flying photons. Therefore, a fundamental requirement is a single photon source that can efficiently generate indistinguishable photons for the entanglement generation. The group-IV vacancy centers in diamond have emerged as promising candidates due to their spectral stability benefiting from inversion symmetry and long spin coherence time. In particular, the lead-vacancy (PbV) center exhibits fourier-limited linewidths even above 10 K and is predicted to have millisecond-scale spin coherence time near 9 K, making it suitable for scalable quantum networks. Here, we report the indistinguishability of photons emitted from a single PbV center in diamond through a two-photon interference experiment, known as the Hong-Ou-Mandel (HOM) effect. Fluorescence from the PbV center was split into two paths and recombined at a HOM interferometer. Photon correlations were measured for parallel and orthogonal polarized schemes. In parallel polarization, a clear interference dip below 0.5 at zero time delay was observed, whereas for orthogonal polarization, the correlation function exceeded 0.5. These results confirm the generation of indistinguishable photons from a single PbV center, validating their potential as the solid-state quantum emitter. This work paves the way for the PbV-based application for quantum information processing.
Near transform-limited single photon sources are required for perfect photon indistinguishability in quantum networks. Having such sources in nanodiamonds is particularly important since it can enable engineering hybrid quantum photonic systems. In this letter, we report the generation of optically stable, nearly transform-limited single silicon vacancy emitters in nanodiamonds. Lines as narrow as 325 MHz are reported, which is comparable to the lifetime limited linewidth. Moreover, the emitters exhibit minimal spectrum diffusion and absolute photostability, even if pumped well above saturation. Our results suggest that nanodiamonds can host color centers with supreme properties suitable for hybrid photonic devices and quantum information.
Highly efficient sources of indistinguishable single photons that can operate at room temperature would be very beneficial for many applications in quantum technology. We show that the implementation of such sources is a realistic goal using solid-state emitters and ultrasmall mode volume cavities. We derive and analyze an expression for photon indistinguishability that accounts for relevant detrimental effects, such as plasmon-induced quenching and pure dephasing. We then provide the general cavity and emitter conditions required to achieve efficient indistinguishable photon emission and also discuss constraints due to phonon sideband emission. Using these conditions, we propose that a nanodiamond negatively charged silicon-vacancy center combined with a plasmonic-Fabry-P\'erot hybrid cavity is an excellent candidate system.
Abstract Optical coupling enables intermediate- and long-range interactions between distant quantum emitters. Such interaction may be the basic element in bottom-up approaches of coupled spin systems or for integrated quantum photonics and quantum plasmonics. Here, we prepare nanodiamonds carrying single, negatively-charged silicon-vacancy centers for evanescent optical coupling with access to all degrees of freedom by means of atomic force nanomanipulation. The color centers feature excellent optical properties, comparable to silicon-vacancy centers in bulk diamond, resulting in a resolvable fine structure splitting, a linewidth close to the Fourier-Transform limit under resonant excitation and a good polarization contrast. We determine the orbital relaxation time T 1 of the orbitally split ground states and show that all optical properties are conserved during translational nanomanipulation. Furthermore, we demonstrate the rotation of the nanodiamonds. In contrast to the translational operation, the rotation leads to a change in polarization contrast. We utilize the change in polarization contrast before and after nanomanipulation to determine the rotation angle. Finally, we evaluate the likelihood for indistinguishable, single photon emission of silicon-vacancy centers located in different nanodiamonds. Our work enables ideal evanescent, optical coupling of distant nanodiamonds containing silicon-vacancy centers with applications in the realization of quantum networks, quantum repeaters or complex quantum systems.