Colossal photon bunching in quasiparticle-mediated nanodiamond cathodoluminescence

Abstract

Nanoscale control over the second-order photon correlation function $g^{(2)}(\tau )$ is critical to emerging research in nonlinear nanophotonics and integrated quantum information science. Here we report on quasiparticle control of photon bunching with $g^{(2)}(0)>45$ in the cathodoluminescence of nanodiamond nitrogen vacancy (NV${}^0$) centers excited by a converged electron beam in an aberration-corrected scanning transmission electron microscope. Plasmon-mediated NV${}^0$ cathodoluminescence exhibits a 16-fold increase in luminescence intensity correlated with a three fold reduction in photon bunching compared with that of uncoupled NV${}^0$ centers. This effect is ascribed to the excitation of single temporally uncorrelated NV${}^0$ centers by single surface plasmon polaritons. Spectrally resolved Hanbury Brown--Twiss interferometry is employed to demonstrate that the bunching is mediated by the NV${}^0$ phonon sidebands, while no observable bunching is detected at the zero-phonon line. The data are consistent with fast phonon-mediated recombination dynamics, a conclusion substantiated by agreement between Bayesian regression and Monte Carlo models of superthermal NV${}^0$ luminescence.

4 pages, 4 figures