Nanopositioning of a diamond nanocrystal containing a single nitrogen-vacancy defect center

Abstract

Precise control over the position of a single quantum object is important for many experiments in quantum science and nanotechnology. We report on a technique for high-accuracy positioning of individual diamond nanocrystals. The positioning is done with a home-built nanomanipulator under real-time scanning electron imaging, yielding an accuracy of a few nanometers. This technique is applied to pick up, move, and position a single nitrogen-vacancy (NV) defect center contained in a diamond nanocrystal. We verify that the unique optical and spin properties of the NV center are conserved by the positioning process.