Single photon emitters based on Ni/Si related defects in single crystalline diamond

TL;DR

This study investigates Ni/Si related single-photon emitters in diamond, demonstrating controlled creation, spectral properties, and photon emission characteristics, including single-photon purity and polarization behavior.

Contribution

It introduces a method to produce Ni/Si color centers in diamond with specific optical properties and characterizes their photon emission behavior and energy level structures.

Findings

Emission wavelength between 767nm and 775nm

Single-photon emission confirmed by auto-correlation

Variation in emission stability and polarization behavior

Abstract

We present investigations on single Ni/Si related color centers produced via ion implantation into single crystalline type IIa CVD diamond. Testing different ion dose combinations we show that there is an upper limit for both the Ni and the Si dose 10^12/cm^2 and 10^10/cm^2 resp.) due to creation of excess fluorescent background. We demonstrate creation of Ni/Si related centers showing emission in the spectral range between 767nm and 775nm and narrow line-widths of 2nm FWHM at room temperature. Measurements of the intensity auto-correlation functions prove single-photon emission. The investigated color centers can be coarsely divided into two groups: Drawing from photon statistics and the degree of polarization in excitation and emission we find that some color centers behave as two-level, single-dipole systems whereas other centers exhibit three levels and contributions from two orthogonal dipoles. In addition, some color centers feature stable and bright emission with saturation count rates up to 78kcounts/s whereas others show fluctuating count rates and three-level blinking.