School of Mathematical and Physical Sciences, University of Technology Sydney , Ultimo, New South Wales 2007, Australia.
Universität Augsburg, Lehrstuhl für Experimentalphysik IV, Universitätsstrasse 1 (Gebäude Nord) , 86135 Augsburg, Germany.
ACS Appl Mater Interfaces. 2016 Mar 23;8(11):7590-4. doi: 10.1021/acsami.6b00466. Epub 2016 Mar 11.
Diamond nanocrystals that host room temperature narrowband single photon emitters are highly sought after for applications in nanophotonics and bioimaging. However, current understanding of the origin of these emitters is extremely limited. In this work, we demonstrate that the narrowband emitters are point defects localized at extended morphological defects in individual nanodiamonds. In particular, we show that nanocrystals with defects such as twin boundaries and secondary nucleation sites exhibit narrowband emission that is absent from pristine individual nanocrystals grown under the same conditions. Critically, we prove that the narrowband emission lines vanish when extended defects are removed deterministically using highly localized electron beam induced etching. Our results enhance the current understanding of single photon emitters in diamond and are directly relevant to fabrication of novel quantum optics devices and sensors.
对于应用于纳米光子学和生物成像的室温窄带单光子发射器来说，人们对其载体金刚石纳米晶体有着强烈的需求。然而，目前对这些发射器的起源的了解极为有限。在这项工作中，我们证明了这些窄带发射器是局域在单个金刚石纳米晶体中扩展形态缺陷上的点缺陷。具体来说，我们表明，具有孪晶界和二次成核等缺陷的纳米晶体表现出窄带发射，而在相同条件下生长的原始单个纳米晶体则没有这种发射。关键的是，我们证明了使用高度局域化的电子束诱导刻蚀来确定性地去除扩展缺陷时，窄带发射线会消失。我们的结果增强了对金刚石中单光子发射器的现有理解，并且与新型量子光学器件和传感器的制造直接相关。
