Plasmonic resonators for enhanced diamond NV- center single photon sources

TL;DR

This paper introduces a plasmonic aperture device with diamond NV centers that significantly enhances single-photon emission efficiency and tunability, promising scalable quantum photonic applications.

Contribution

It presents a novel plasmonic structure that enhances NV center emission and collection efficiency, with broad tunability and scalable fabrication methods.

Findings

Optical pumping enhanced by a factor of 7

Spontaneous emission rate increased by Purcell factor ~50

Collection efficiency up to 40%

Abstract

We propose a novel source of non-classical light consisting of plasmonic aperture with single-crystal diamond containing a single Nitrogen-Vacancy (NV) color center. Theoretical calculations of optimal structures show that these devices can simultaneously enhance optical pumping by a factor of 7, spontaneous emission rates by Fp ~ 50 (Purcell factor), and offer collection efficiencies up to 40%. These excitation and collection enhancements occur over a broad range of wavelengths (~30nm), and are independently tunable with device geometry, across the excitation (~530nm) and emission (~600-800nm) spectrum of the NV center. Implementing this system with top-down techniques in bulk diamond crystals will provide a scalable architecture for a myriad of diamond NV center applications.