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Enhanced single-photon emission from a diamond–silver aperture

Nature Photonics volume 5, pages 738–743 (2011)Cite this article

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Abstract

Solid-state quantum emitters, such as the nitrogen-vacancy centre in diamond1, are robust systems for practical realizations of various quantum information processing protocols2,3,4,5 and nanoscale magnetometry schemes6,7 at room temperature. Such applications benefit from the high emission efficiency and flux of single photons, which can be achieved by engineering the electromagnetic environment of the emitter. One attractive approach is based on plasmonic resonators8,9,10,11,12,13, in which sub-wavelength confinement of optical fields can strongly modify the spontaneous emission of a suitably embedded dipole despite having only modest quality factors. Meanwhile, the scalability of solid-state quantum systems critically depends on the ability to control such emitter–cavity interaction in a number of devices arranged in parallel. Here, we demonstrate a method to enhance the radiative emission rate of single nitrogen-vacancy centres in ordered arrays of plasmonic apertures that promises greater scalability over the previously demonstrated bottom-up approaches for the realization of on-chip quantum networks.

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Figure 1: Single-photon source based on diamond–plasmon apertures.
Figure 2: Fabrication and optical microscopy of devices.
Figure 3: Spontaneous emission enhancement of single NV centres.
Figure 4: Comparison of photoluminescence spectra and device performances.

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Acknowledgements

The authors thank D. Twitchen and M. Markham from Element Six for providing diamond samples, and C.L. Yu, P. Hemmer and O. Bakr for helpful discussions. The authors also thank K.P. Chen and V. Shalaev for their helpful suggestions. T.M.B. acknowledges support from the National Defense Science and Engineering Graduate (NDSEG) and National Science Foundation (NSF) Graduate Research fellowships, and J.T.C. acknowledges support from the NSF Graduate Research fellowship. Devices were fabricated in the Center for Nanoscale Systems (CNS) at Harvard. This work was supported in part by Harvard University's Nanoscale Science and Engineering Center (NSEC), a NSF Nanotechnology and Interdisciplinary Research Team grant (ECCS-0708905), the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (Quantum Entanglement Science and Technology program), and the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology Faculty Initiated Collaboration Award (FIC/2010/02).

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Author notes

  1. Jennifer T. Choy, Birgit J. M. Hausmann, Thomas M. Babinec and Irfan Bulu: These authors contributed equally to this work

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Harvard University, Cambridge, 02138, Massachusetts, USA

    Jennifer T. Choy, Birgit J. M. Hausmann, Thomas M. Babinec, Irfan Bulu & Marko Lončar

  2. Wyss Institute, Harvard University, Cambridge, 02138, Massachusetts, USA

    Mughees Khan

  3. Department of Physics, Harvard University, Cambridge, 02138, Massachusetts, USA

    Patrick Maletinsky & Amir Yacoby

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  1. Jennifer T. Choy
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Contributions

J.T.C., B.J.M.H. and T.M.B. performed the experiments and analysed the data. I.B. developed the theory and numerically modelled the structures. B.J.M.H. and J.T.C. fabricated the devices. M.K. contributed insights on the fabrication. P.M. and A.Y. provided additional experimental apparatus and helped with the measurements. M.L. and I.B. supervised the project. J.T.C., B.J.M.H. and M.L. wrote the paper. All authors discussed the results and commented on the manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Marko Lončar.

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The authors declare no competing financial interests.

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Choy, J., Hausmann, B., Babinec, T. et al. Enhanced single-photon emission from a diamond–silver aperture. Nature Photon 5, 738–743 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1038/nphoton.2011.249

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