Marko Lončar, Harvard
Abstract
Individual color centers in diamond have recently emerged as a promising solid-state platform for quantum communication and quantum information processing systems, as well as sensitive nanoscale magnetometry with optical read-out. Performance of these systems can be significantly improved by engineering optical properties of color centers using nanophotonic approaches. In this work we describe a high-flux, room temperature, source of single photons based on an individual Nitrogen-Vacancy (NV) center embedded in a top-down nanofabricated, single crystal diamond nanowires1, plasmonic nano-apertures2, and all-diamond based optical cavities3,4. Using the nanowire geometry, for example, an order of magnitude brighter single photon source is realized, compared to an NV center in a bulk diamond1. By embedding diamond nanowires in metals 10-fold enhancement of NV’s spontaneous emission, due to large Purcell effect provided by metallic nanocavity, was demonstrated2. Finally, single-photon emission of NVs inside ring and photonic crystal resonator, fabricated directly in diamond, as well as single photon routing in an on-chip optical network has been achieved4. In addition to applications in quantum information processing, and owing to its excellent physical and chemical properties, diamond based optical nanostructures are of great interest for applications ranging from optoelectronics and NEMS/MEMS to life-sciences and sensing.
1. T.M. Babinec, B.M. Hausmann, M. Khan, Y. Zhang, J. Maze, P.R. Hemmer, M. Lončar, "A bright single photon source based on a diamond nanowire," Nature Nanotechnology, 5, 195 (2010)
2. J.T. Choy, B.M. Hausmann, T.M. Babinec, I. Bulu, and M. Lončar, "Enhanced Single Photon Emission by Diamond-Plasmon Nanostructures.," Nature Photonics, DOI 0.1038/NPHOTON.2011.249
3. T.M. Babinec, J.T. Choy, K.J.M. Smith, M. Khan, and M. Lončar, “Design and Focused Ion Beam Fabrication of Single Crystal Diamond Nanobeam Cavities,” J. Vac. Sci. Tech. B, 29, 010601 (2011)
4. B.J.M. Hausmann, B. Shields, Q. Quan, P. Maletinsky, M. McCutcheon, J.T. Choy, T.M. Babinec, A. Kubanek, A. Yacoby, M.D. Lukin, and M. Lončar "Integrated Diamond Networks for Quantum Nanophotonics", in review.
Marko Lončar is Associate Professor of Electrical Engineering at Harvard’s School of Engineering and Applied Sciences. He received his Diploma (1997) from University of Belgrade (Republic of Serbia) and his MS (1998) and PhD (2003) degrees from California Institute of Technology, all in electrical engineering. His recent research interests include optical nanocavities, nanoscale optomechanics, diamond nanophotonics and quantum optics, and cavity-based bio-chemical sensing. Dr. Loncar has co-authored more than 70 journal articles and has given more than 100 invited talks and seminars. He is recipient of NSF CAREER Award in 2009, and Alfred P. Sloan Fellowship in 2010.