Emission of nitrogen-vacancy centers in diamond shaped by topological photonic waveguide modes

TL;DR

This study investigates how nitrogen-vacancy centers in diamond interact with topological photonic waveguides, revealing their potential for on-chip quantum optics and advanced sensing applications.

Contribution

It demonstrates the use of NV centers as local probes to characterize topological waveguides and explores their influence on emission properties at room temperature.

Findings

NV centers reveal waveguide bandwidth and propagation directionality.

Near-field coupling alters NV photoluminescence spectral shape.

Nanostructured light fields can be mapped with high spatial resolution.

Abstract

As the ability to integrate single photon emitters into photonic architectures improves, so does the need to characterize and understand their interaction. Here, we use a scanning diamond nanocrystal to investigate the interplay between the emission of room-temperature nitrogen-vacancy (NV) centers and a proximal topological waveguide. In our experiments, NVs serve as local, spectrally broad light sources which we exploit to characterize the waveguide bandwidth as well as the correspondence between light injection site and directionality of wave propagation. Further, we find that near-field coupling to the waveguide influences the spectral shape and ellipticity of the NV photoluminescence, hence allowing us to reveal nanostructured light fields with a spatial resolution defined by the nanoparticle size. Our results expand on the sensing modalities afforded by color centers, and portend novel opportunities in the development of on-chip, quantum optics devices leveraging topological photonics to best manipulate and readout single-photon emitters.