Single Color Centers Implanted in Diamond Nanostructures

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates methods for creating and isolating single nitrogen-vacancy centers in diamond nanostructures using ion implantation and nanofabrication, enabling improved quantum photonic devices.

Contribution

It introduces combined ion implantation and top-down fabrication techniques for embedding single NV centers in diamond nanostructures with high yield.

Findings

High yield (>10%) of single NV centers in nanopillars

Strong photon anti-bunching observed at high pump powers in nanowires

Effective isolation of single NV centers via dry etching

Abstract

The development of materials processing techniques for optical diamond nanostructures containing a single color center is an important problem in quantum science and technology. In this work, we present the combination of ion implantation and top-down diamond nanofabrication in two scenarios: diamond nanopillars and diamond nanowires. The first device consists of a 'shallow' implant (~20nm) to generate Nitrogen-vacancy (NV) color centers near the top surface of the diamond crystal. Individual NV centers are then isolated mechanically by dry etching a regular array of nanopillars in the diamond surface. Photon anti-bunching measurements indicate that a high yield (>10%) of the devices contain a single NV center. The second device demonstrates 'deep' (~1\mu m) implantation of individual NV centers into pre-fabricated diamond nanowire. The high single photon flux of the nanowire geometry, combined with the low background fluorescence of the ultrapure diamond, allows us to sustain strong photon anti-bunching even at high pump powers.