Abstract
Diamond’s nitrogen-vacancy (NV) centers show great promise in sensing applications and quantum computing due to their long electron spin coherence time and because they can be found, manipulated, and read out optically. An important step forward for diamond photonics would be connecting multiple diamond NVs together using optical waveguides. However, the inertness of diamond is a significant hurdle for the fabrication of integrated optics similar to those that revolutionized silicon photonics. In this work, we show the fabrication of optical waveguides in diamond, enabled by focused femtosecond high repetition rate laser pulses. By optimizing the geometry of the waveguide, we obtain single mode waveguides from the visible to the infrared. Additionally, we show the laser writing of individual NV centers within the bulk of diamond. We use µ-Raman spectroscopy to gain better insight on the stress and the refractive index profile of the optical waveguides. Using optically detected magnetic resonance and confocal photoluminescence characterization, high quality NV properties are observed in waveguides formed in various grades of diamond, making them promising for applications such as magnetometry, quantum information systems, and evanescent field sensors.
Highlights
Apart from its remarkable beauty when cut appropriately, diamond is the hardest naturally occurring bulk material, has a record high thermal conductivity and offers outstanding transparency from the ultraviolet to far infrared
The highest repetition rate kHz available from our laser was applied to write two closely spaced modification lines, which available from our laser was applied to write two closely spaced modification lines, which yielded the first demonstration of optical waveguiding in diamond using femtosecond laser yielded the first demonstration of optical waveguiding in diamond using femtosecond laser inscription inscription (Figure 1)
We explored a different range of waveguide depths, with emphasis on shallower waveguides, which can interact with near-surface NV centers for applications in magnetometry
Summary
Apart from its remarkable beauty when cut appropriately, diamond is the hardest naturally occurring bulk material, has a record high thermal conductivity and offers outstanding transparency from the ultraviolet to far infrared. It is a defect in diamond’s tetrahedral lattice of carbon atoms which has scientists excited. In both naturally found and synthetically fabricated diamond, the nitrogen-vacancy (NV) center is present, where a nitrogen sits next to an empty site. Despite some previous attempts [2,3], it remains a challenge to fabricate optical waveguides in diamond due to its hardness and chemical inertness
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