Single-color centers implanted in diamond nanostructures

Abstract

The development of materials processing techniques for optical diamond\nnanostructures containing a single color center is an important problem in\nquantum science and technology. In this work, we present the combination of ion\nimplantation and top-down diamond nanofabrication in two scenarios: diamond\nnanopillars and diamond nanowires. The first device consists of a 'shallow'\nimplant (~20nm) to generate Nitrogen-vacancy (NV) color centers near the top\nsurface of the diamond crystal. Individual NV centers are then isolated\nmechanically by dry etching a regular array of nanopillars in the diamond\nsurface. Photon anti-bunching measurements indicate that a high yield (>10%) of\nthe devices contain a single NV center. The second device demonstrates 'deep'\n(~1\\mu m) implantation of individual NV centers into pre-fabricated diamond\nnanowire. The high single photon flux of the nanowire geometry, combined with\nthe low background fluorescence of the ultrapure diamond, allows us to sustain\nstrong photon anti-bunching even at high pump powers.\n