Sub-GHz Linewidth Ensembles of SiV Centers in a Diamond Nanopyramid Revealed by Charge State Conversion

Producing nanostructures with embedded bright ensembles of lifetime-limited emitters is a challenge with potential high impact in a broad range of physical sciences. In this work, we demonstrate controlled charge transfer to and from dark states exhibiting very long lifetimes in high-density ensembles of SiV centers hosted in a diamond nanopyramid grown by chemical vapor deposition. Further, using a combination of resonant photoluminescence excitation and a frequency-selective persistent hole-burning technique that exploits this charge state transfer, we could demonstrate close to lifetime-limited linewidths from the SiV centers. Such a nanostructure with thousands of bright narrow linewidth emitters in a volume much below λ³ will be useful for coherent light–matter coupling, biological sensing, and nanoscale thermometry.

L. Nicolas, T. Delord, P. Huillery, C. Pellet-Mary, and G. Hétet
https://doi.org/10.1021/acsphotonics.9b00262  (arxiv here)

Some other works from this team:
– (Article) Synthesis of Loose Nanodiamonds Containing Nitrogen-Vacancy Centers for Magnetic and Thermal Sensing.
A. Tallaire, O. Brinza, M. De Feudis, A. Ferrier, N. Touati, L. Binet, L. Nicolas, G. Hétet, T. Herzig, S. Pezzagna, P. Goldner, J. Achard.
ACS Applied Nano Materials (2019).    https://doi.org/10.1021/acsanm.9b01395
– (Patent) Optical Memory System. B.C. Buchler, B.M. Sparkes, P.K. Lam, M. Hosseini, G. Hétet. IP Australia (2019)