Homogeneous Free-Standing Nanostructures from Bulk Diamond over Millimeter Scales for Quantum Technologies

TL;DR

This paper presents a scalable method to produce millimeter-scale, ultra-thin, and highly uniform diamond membranes with atomically smooth surfaces, enabling advanced quantum device fabrication.

Contribution

A novel photolithography-based technique for creating large, homogeneous, free-standing diamond nanostructures suitable for quantum technologies.

Findings

Produced millimeter-scale, ultra-thin diamond membranes with atomically smooth surfaces.

Demonstrated fabrication of large, homogeneous quantum photonic structures.

Method is scalable, contamination-free, and compatible with integration techniques.

Abstract

Quantum devices based on optically addressable spin qubits in diamond are promising platforms for quantum technologies such as quantum sensing and communication. Nano- and microstructuring of the diamond crystal is essential to enhance device performance, yet fabrication remains challenging and often involves trade-offs in surface quality, aspect ratio, device size, and uniformity. We tackle this hurdle with an approach producing millimeter-scale, thin (down to 70 nm) and highly parallel (< 0.35 nm/$\mathrm{\mu m}$}) membranes from single-crystal diamond. The membranes remain contamination-free and possess atomically smooth surfaces ($\mathrm{R_q}$ < 200 pm) as required by state-of-the-art quantum applications. We demonstrate the benefits and versatility of our method by fabricating large fields of free-standing and homogeneous photonic nano- and microstructures. Leveraging a refined photolithography-based strategy, our method offers enhanced scalability and produces robust structures suitable for direct use, while remaining compatible with heterogeneous integration through pick-and-place transfer techniques.