Site selective growth of heteroepitaxial diamond nanoislands containing single SiV centers

TL;DR

This paper presents a method for precisely growing heteroepitaxial diamond nanoislands on silicon wafers, which host single SiV color centers with narrow optical lines at room temperature, advancing quantum photonics applications.

Contribution

It introduces a novel fabrication process combining electron beam lithography and chemical vapor deposition to create ordered diamond nanoislands with embedded single SiV centers.

Findings

Successful creation of ordered diamond nanoislands on silicon wafers.

Identification of single SiV centers with narrow zero phonon lines.

Room temperature stability of the SiV centers' optical properties.

Abstract

We demonstrate the controlled preparation of heteroepitaxial diamond nano- and microstructures on silicon wafer based iridium films as hosts for single color centers. Our approach uses electron beam lithography followed by reactive ion etching to pattern the carbon layer formed by bias enhanced nucleation on the iridium surface. In the subsequent chemical vapor deposition process, the patterned areas evolve into regular arrays of (001) oriented diamond nano-islands with diameters of <500nm and a height of approx. 60 nm. In the islands, we identify single SiV color centers with narrow zero phonon lines down to 1 nm at room temperature.