Nitrogen-Vacancy Color Centers in Nanodiamonds as Reference Single-Photon Emitters

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates that nanodiamonds with nitrogen vacancy centers serve as reliable, stable reference single-photon emitters, enabling consistent optical characterization crucial for quantum photonics research.

Contribution

It introduces a new standard using selected nanodiamonds with NV centers for reproducible single-photon emission measurements, validated across laboratories.

Findings

Selected 4 candidate nanodiamonds with NV centers as reference emitters.

Reproducible emission properties confirmed across different labs.

Validated control over experimental conditions using the reference nanodiamond.

Abstract

Quantitative and reproducible optical characterization of single quantum emitters is crucial for quantum photonic materials research, yet controlling for experimental conditions remains challenging due to a lack of an established reference standard. We propose nanodiamonds containing single nitrogen vacancy (NV$^{-}$) color centers as reliable, stable and robust sources of single-photon emission. We select 4 potential reference emitter candidates from a study of thousands of NV$^{-}$ centers. Candidates were remeasured at a second laboratory, correlating optical pump power and NV$^{-}$ center emission intensity at saturation in addition to corresponding $g^{(2)}(0)$ values. A reference nanodiamond is demonstrated to control for experimental conditions, with reproducible and reliable single-photon emission, as a model for a new single-photon emitter reference standard.