Tracking Emission Rate Dynamics of NV Centers in Nanodiamonds

TL;DR

This paper investigates how reducing the size of diamond hosts affects the emission properties of NV centers, revealing size-dependent quenching, new non-radiative channels, and blinking phenomena.

Contribution

It provides the first detailed study of emission rate dynamics of NV centers during host size reduction from bulk to nanocrystals.

Findings

Radiative emission is quenched as diamond size decreases.

New non-radiative decay channels emerge in smaller diamonds.

Blinking behavior appears in some nanocrystals.

Abstract

Spontaneous emission from crystal centers is influenced by both the photonic local density of states and non-radiative processes. Here we monitor the spontaneous emission of single nitrogen vacancy (NV) centers as their host diamond is reduced in size from a large monolithic crystal to a nanocrystal by successive cycles of oxidation. The size reduction induces a quenching of the NV radiative emission. New non-radiative channels lead to a decrease of the fluorescence intensity and the excited state lifetime. In one case we observe the onset of blinking which may provide a route to understand these additional non-radiative decay channels.