25-nm diamond crystals hosting single NV color centers sorted by photon-correlation near-field microscopy

Yannick Sonnefraud (1) , Aurelien Cuche (1) , Orestis Faklaris (2) , Jean-Paul Boudou (3) , Thierry Sauvage (4) , Jean-François Roch (2) , François Treussart (2) , Serge Huant (1)

1 NEEL - NOF - Nano-Optique et Forces
2 LPQM - Laboratoire de Photonique Quantique et Moléculaire
3 Bioemco - Biogéochimie et écologie des milieux continentaux
4 CERI - Centre d'Études et de Recherches par Irradiation

Diamond nanocrystals containing highly photoluminescent color centers are attractive non-classical and near-field light sources. For near-field applications the size of the nanocrystal is crucial since it defines the optical resolution. NV (Nitrogen-Vacancy) color centers are efficiently created by proton irradiation and annealing of a nanodiamond powder. Using near-field microscopy and photon statistics measurements, we show that nanodiamond with size down to 25 nm can hold a single NV color center with bright and stable photoluminescence.

Domaines: Science des matériaux [cond-mat.mtrl-sci]; Optique [physics.optics]

Yannick Sonnefraud, Aurelien Cuche, Orestis Faklaris, Jean-Paul Boudou, Thierry Sauvage, et al.. 25-nm diamond crystals hosting single NV color centers sorted by photon-correlation near-field microscopy. Optics Letters, 2008, 33 (6), pp.611. ⟨10.1364/OL.33.000611⟩. ⟨hal-00193196⟩