Strongly enhanced photon collection from diamond defect centers under microfabricated integrated solid immersion lenses

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Abstract
The efficiency of photon collection from optically active defect centers in bulk diamond is greatly reduced by refraction at the diamond-air interface. We report on the fabrication and measurement of a geometrical solution to the problem; integrated solid immersion lenses (SILs) etched directly into the surface of diamond. An increase of a factor of 10 was observed in the saturated count-rate from a single negatively charged nitrogen-vacancy ( NV − ) within a 5 μ m diameter SIL compared with NV − ’s under a planar surface in the same crystal. Such a system is potentially scalable and easily adaptable to other defect centers in bulk diamond.