Coupling of Nitrogen-Vacancy Centers to Photonic Crystal Cavities in Monocrystalline Diamond

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates a significant enhancement of the zero-phonon transition rate of nitrogen-vacancy centers in diamond by coupling them to photonic crystal resonators, enabling improved quantum emission properties.

Contribution

It reports the fabrication and coupling of nitrogen-vacancy centers to photonic crystal cavities in monocrystalline diamond, achieving a 70-fold increase in emission rate using standard semiconductor techniques.

Findings

Zero-phonon transition rate enhanced by ~70 times

Photon antibunching confirms single NV center emission

Spectral diffusion characterized with high-resolution spectroscopy

Abstract

The zero-phonon transition rate of a nitrogen-vacancy center is enhanced by a factor of ~70 by coupling to a photonic crystal resonator fabricated in monocrystalline diamond using standard semiconductor fabrication techniques. Photon correlation measurements on the spectrally filtered zero-phonon line show antibunching, a signature that the collected photoluminescence is emitted primarily by a single nitrogen-vacancy center. The linewidth of the coupled nitrogen-vacancy center and the spectral diffusion are characterized using high-resolution photoluminescence and photoluminescence excitation spectroscopy.