A new, enhanced diamond single photon emitter in the near infra-red

TL;DR

This paper reports the fabrication of a novel nickel-based color center in diamond with superior photophysical properties for quantum technologies, including near-infrared emission at 768 nm and short lifetime, enabling advanced quantum photonic devices.

Contribution

Introduces a new nickel-related color center in diamond with enhanced optical properties, fabricated via focused ion beam implantation, suitable for integrated quantum photonics.

Findings

Narrow near-infrared emission at 768 nm

Short photoluminescence lifetime of 2 ns

Potential for nanometer-scale fabrication and integration

Abstract

Individual color centers in diamond are promising for near-term quantum technologies including quantum key distribution and metrology. Here we show fabrication of a new color center which has photophysical properties surpassing those of the two main-stay centers, namely the nitrogen vacancy and NE8 centers. The new center is fabricated using focused ion beam implantation of nickel into isolated chemical vapor deposited diamond micro-crystals. Room temperature photoluminescence studies reveal a narrow emission in the near infrared region centered at 768 nm with a lifetime as short as 2 ns. Its focused ion beam compatibility opens the prospect to fabrication with nanometer resolution and realization of integrated quantum photonic devices. Preliminary investigations suggest that this center arises from an as-yet uncharacterized nickel-silicon complex.