Enhanced spontaneous emission from nanodiamond colour centres on opal photonic crystal

Abstract

Colour centres in diamond are promising candidates as a platform for quantum technologies and biomedical imaging based on spins and/or photons. Controlling the emission properties of colour centres in diamond is a key requirement for developing efficient single photon sources with high collection efficiency. A number of groups have produced enhancement in the emission rate over narrow wavelength ranges by coupling single emitters in nanodiamond crystals to resonant electromagnetic structures. Here we characterise in detail the spontaneous emission rates of nitrogen-vacancy centres positioned in various locations on a structured substrate. We show an average factor of 1.5 enhancement of the total emission rate when nanodiamonds are on an opal photonic crystal surface, and observe changes in the lifetime distribution. We present a model to explain these observations and associate the lifetime properties with dipole orientation and polarization effects.

16 pages, 10 figures

References in corpus (5)

• Cavity QED with Diamond Nanocrystals and Silica Microspheres
• Stark shift control of single optical centers in diamond
• Prediction and measurement of the size-dependent stability of fluorescence in diamond over the entire nanoscale
• Deterministic nano-assembly of a coupled quantum emitter - photonic crystal cavity system
• Coherence properties of a single dipole emitter in diamond

Cited by in corpus (4)

• Structural attributes and photo-dynamics of visible spectrum quantum emitters in hexagonal boron nitride
• Enhanced photoluminescence from single nitrogen-vacancy defects in nanodiamonds coated with metal-phenolic networks
• Probing plasmon-NV${}^0$ coupling at the nanometer scale with photons and fast electrons
• Measurement of the Hyperfine Quenching Rate of the Clock Transition in ${}^{171}$Yb