Interaction of a heralded single photon with nitrogen-vacancy centers in a diamond

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates a simple, room-temperature interface where heralded single photons interact with nitrogen-vacancy centers in diamond, overcoming bandwidth mismatch issues and enabling efficient photon-matter interactions.

Contribution

It introduces a novel, cavity-free, room-temperature method for photon-nitrogen-vacancy center interaction using broadband heralded single photons.

Findings

Successful absorption of heralded single photons by NV centers

Broadband photon source matches NV center absorption spectrum

Operates at room temperature without cavities or vacuum

Abstract

A simple, room-temperature, cavity- and vacuum-free interface for a photon-matter interaction is implemented. In the experiment, a heralded single photon generated by the process of spontaneous parametric down-conversion is absorbed by an ensemble of nitrogen-vacancy color centers. The broad absorption spectrum associated with the phonon sideband solves the mismatch problem of a narrow absorption bandwidth in a typical atomic medium and broadband spectrum of quantum light. The heralded single photon source is tunable in the spectral range 452-575 nm, which overlaps well with the absorption spectrum of nitrogen-vacancy centers.