Optical properties of silicon-implanted polycrystalline diamond membranes

TL;DR

This study explores the optical characteristics of silicon-implanted polycrystalline diamond membranes, linking microscopic structure and silicon distribution to luminescence properties for quantum nano-optics applications.

Contribution

It combines nano-analytical techniques to correlate structural features and silicon distribution with optical emission, advancing understanding of diamond membranes for quantum technologies.

Findings

Correlation between Raman signal and SiV emission identified

Conditions for addressing single SiV centers established

Structural analysis supports optimization of polycrystalline diamond membranes

Abstract

We investigate the optical properties of polycrystalline diamond membranes containing silicon-vacancy (SiV) color centers in combination with other nano-analytical techniques. We analyze the correlation between the Raman signal, the SiV emission, and the background luminescence in the crystalline grains and in the grain boundaries, identifying conditions for the addressability of single SiV centers. Moreover, we perform a scanning transmission electron microscopy (STEM) analysis, which associates the microscopic structure of the membranes and the evolution of the diamond crystal along the growth direction with the photoluminescence properties, as well as a time-of-flight secondary ion mass spectrometry (ToF-SIMS) to address the distribution of silicon in implanted and un-implanted membranes. The results of the STEM and ToF-SIMS studies are consistent with the outcome of the optical measurements and provide useful insight into the preparation of polycrystalline samples for quantum nano-optics.