Control of NV center radiation in nanodiamonds by silicon nanoantennas

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates how silicon nanoantennas can control the emission properties of NV centers in nanodiamonds, enhancing and modifying their luminescent behavior for potential quantum photonics applications.

Contribution

It provides experimental evidence of emission rate modification and intensity enhancement of NV centers via coupling with silicon nanoantennas, revealing new light control capabilities of dielectric nanostructures.

Findings

Spontaneous emission rate of NV centers can be reduced by coupling to silicon nanoantennas.

Photoluminescence intensity from NV centers can be increased by over 50% using nanoantennas.

Coupling nanodiamonds with silicon nanoresonators enables control over quantum emitter emission properties.

Abstract

The development of nanophotonics systems for the manipulation of the luminescent properties of single quantum emitters is essential for quantum communication and computing. Dielectric nanosystems enable various opportunities for light control through inherent electric and magnetic resonances, however their full potential has not yet been discovered. Here, the emission properties of NV centers in nanodiamonds placed in the near-field zone of silicon nanoresonators are investigated. It is demonstrated experimentally that the spontaneous emission rate of single NV centers in 50 nm nanodiamonds can be modified by their coupling to spherical nanoantennas, reducing the mode of the lifetime distribution by approximately 2 times from 16 ns to 9 ns. It is also shown that the collected intensity of photoluminescence emission from the multiple NV centers in 150 nm nanodiamond coupled to a cylindrical nanoantenna is increased by more than 50% compared to the intensity from the same nanodiamond on a bare substrate