A Bright Single Photon Source Based on a Diamond Nanowire

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  • 3 August 2009
Abstract
The development of a robust light source that emits one photon at a time is an outstanding challenge in quantum science and technology. Here, at the transition from many to single photon optical communication systems, fully quantum mechanical effects may be utilized to achieve new capabilities, most notably perfectly secure communication via quantum cryptography. Practical implementations place stringent requirements on the device properties, including fast and stable photon generation, efficient collection of photons, and room temperature operation. Single photon light emitting devices based on fluorescent dye molecules, quantum dots, nanowires, and carbon nanotube material systems have all been explored, but none have simultaneously demonstrated all criteria. Here, we describe the design, fabrication, and characterization of a bright source of single photons consisting of an individual Nitrogen-vacancy color center (NV center) in a diamond nanowire operating in ambient conditions. The nanowire plays a positive role in increasing the number of single photons collected from the NV center by an order of magnitude over devices based on bulk diamond crystals. This result enables a new class of nanostructured diamond devices for room temperature photonic and quantum information processing applications, and will impact fields as diverse as biological and chemical sensing, opto-mechanics, and scanning-probe microscopy.

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