Abstract
Colour centres in nanodiamonds are an important resource for applications in quantum sensing, biological imaging, and quantum optics. Here we report unprecedented narrow optical transitions for individual colour centres in nanodiamonds smaller than 200 nm. This demonstration has been achieved using the negatively charged silicon vacancy centre, which has recently received considerable attention due to its superb optical properties in bulk diamond. We have measured an ensemble of silicon-vacancy centres across numerous nanodiamonds to have an inhomogeneous distribution of 1.05 nm at 5 K. Individual spectral lines as narrower than 360 MHz were measured in photoluminescence excitation, and correcting for apparent spectral diffusion yielded an homogeneous linewidth of about 200 MHz which is close to the lifetime limit. These results indicate the high crystalline quality achieved in these nanodiamond samples, and advance the applicability of nanodiamond-hosted colour centres for quantum optics applications.
Highlights
SiV−centres have been observed to fluoresce in NDs as small as molecules (1.6 nm) [12], the ND host has always led to less homogeneous photon emission [13,14,15,16]
Individual spectral lines close to the lifetime limit were measured for SiV−centres in nanodiamonds smaller than 200 nm, representing an improvement of nearly four times over the best SiV−line previously reported for nanodiamonds [18]
high-pressure high-temperature (HPHT) diamond synthesis reproduces the conditions required for natural diamond formation, where the pressure and temperature make diamond the stable form of carbon
Summary
SiV−centres have been observed to fluoresce in NDs as small as molecules (1.6 nm) [12], the ND host has always led to less homogeneous photon emission [13,14,15,16]. Individual spectral lines close to the lifetime limit were measured for SiV−centres in nanodiamonds smaller than 200 nm, representing an improvement of nearly four times over the best SiV−line previously reported for nanodiamonds [18].
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