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We report the first demonstration of single silicon vacancy center creation in 20 nm nanodiamonds using silicon ion implantation combined with thermal annealing. Room-temperature single photon emission with linewidth below 10 nm is observed.

 

Abstract Diamond color centers have been widely studied in the field of quantum optics. The negatively charged silicon vacancy (SiV − ) center exhibits a narrow emission linewidth at the wavelength of 738 nm, a high Debye–Waller factor, and unique spin properties, making it a promising emitter for quantum information technologies, biological imaging, and sensing. In particular, nanodiamond (ND)-based SiV − centers can be heterogeneously integrated with plasmonic and photonic nanostructures and serve as in vivo biomarkers and intracellular thermometers. Out of all methods to produce NDs with SiV − centers, ion implantation offers the unique potential to create controllable numbers of color centers in preselected individual NDs. However, the formation of single color centers in NDs with this technique has not been realized. We report the creation of single SiV − centers featuring stable high-purity single-photon emission through Si implantation into NDs with an average size of ∼20 nm. We observe room temperature emission, with zero-phonon line wavelengths in the range of 730–800 nm and linewidths below 10 nm. Our results offer new opportunities for the controlled production of group-IV diamond color centers with applications in quantum photonics, sensing, and biomedicine. 

We report a 250-fold photoluminescence enhancement of V_B^-spin-defects in hBN by coupling them to nanopatch antennas (NPA). Considering the relative size of the NPAs and laser-spot, an actual enhancement of 1695 times is determined.

 

Single-photon emitters are essential in enabling several emerging applications in quantum information technology, quantum sensing, and quantum communication. Scalable photonic platforms capable of hosting intrinsic or embedded sources of single-photon emission are of particular interest for the realization of integrated quantum photonic circuits. Here, we report on the observation of room-temperature single-photon emitters in silicon nitride (SiN) films grown on silicon dioxide substrates. Photophysical analysis reveals bright (>10 5 counts/s), stable, linearly polarized, and pure quantum emitters in SiN films with a second-order autocorrelation function value at zero time delay g (2) (0) below 0.2 at room temperature. We suggest that the emission originates from a specific defect center in SiN because of the narrow wavelength distribution of the observed luminescence peak. Single-photon emitters in SiN have the potential to enable direct, scalable, and low-loss integration of quantum light sources with a well-established photonic on-chip platform. 

We demonstrate 120-fold photoluminescence enhancement of V_B^-spin defects in hBN by coupling them to nanopatch antennas. Since the laser spot is 6.25 times larger than the antenna area, the actual enhancement is 750-fold.