Nanofabrication of Plasmonic Circuits Containing Single Photon Sources

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates the nanofabrication of plasmonic circuits with single-photon sources using NV centers in nanodiamonds, achieving efficient coupling and routing of single plasmons for quantum optical applications.

Contribution

It introduces a novel fabrication method for plasmonic circuits with integrated single-photon sources, enabling on-chip quantum photonic functionalities.

Findings

Propagation length of ~20 μm for single-photon emission

Up to 63% coupling efficiency to DLSPPW mode

Successful routing of single plasmons with directional couplers

Abstract

Nanofabrication of photonic components based on dielectric-loaded surface plasmon-polariton waveguides (DLSPPWs) excited by single nitrogen vacancy (NV) centers in nanodiamonds is demonstrated. DLSPPW circuits are built around NV containing nanodiamonds, which are certified to be single-photon emitters, using electron-beam lithography of hydrogen silsesquioxane (HSQ) resist on silver-coated silicon substrates. A propagation length of ~20 {\mu}m for the NV single-photon emission is measured with DLSPPWs. A 5-fold enhancement in the total decay rate and up to 63% coupling efficiency to the DLSPPW mode is achieved, indicating significant mode confinement. Finally, we demonstrate routing of single plasmons with DLSPPW-based directional cou-plers, revealing the potential of our approach for on-chip realization of quantum-optical networks.