Quantum Information Technology and Sensing Based on Color Centers in Diamond

Abstract

Diamond is a material with a number of outstanding mechanical, optical, electrical and chemical properties. In the last decade it has additionally attracted the attention of scientists due to the promising properties of the color centers in its crystal lattice which can find applications in quantum information technology or quantum sensing on a nanometer scale. In this contribution we present the most prominent color centers in diamond, namely the nitrogen-vacancy (NV) and the silicon-vacancy (SiV) centers, and the possibilities to create them in diamond. In order to increase the collection efficiency of the photons emitted by the color centers they should be incorporated in photonic structures. We demonstrate the fabrication of nanopillars with diameters down to 50 nm in nanocrystalline diamond (NCD) films and monocrystalline diamond. In order to reduce the photon scattering from the rough NCD surfaces we developed a planarization technique which significantly reduced the surface roughness.