Deterministic Optical-Near-Field-Assisted Positioning of Nitrogen-Vacancy Centers

• Published in: Nano letters Vol. 14; no. 3; pp. 1520 - 1525
• Main Authors: Geiselmann, Michael, Marty, Renaud, Renger, Jan, García de Abajo, F. Javier, Quidant, Romain
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Washington, DC American Chemical Society 12.03.2014
• Subjects: Antennas; Applied sciences; Collective excitations (including excitons, polarons, plasmons and other charge-density excitations); Condensed matter: electronic structure, electrical, magnetic, and optical properties; Cross-disciplinary physics: materials science; rheology; Density; Electronic structure and electrical properties of surfaces, interfaces, thin films and low-dimensional structures; Electronics; Exact sciences and technology; Fluorescence; Fullerenes and related materials; Illumination; Infrared and raman spectra and scattering; Joining; Materials science; Molecular electronics, nanoelectronics; Nanocrystalline materials; Nanoscale materials and structures: fabrication and characterization; Nanostructure; Optical properties and condensed-matter spectroscopy and other interactions of matter with particles and radiation; Physics; Plasmonics; Semiconductor electronics. Microelectronics. Optoelectronics. Solid state devices; Surface and interface electron states; Trapping; Optical trapping; nanoantenna; NV center; plasmonics; quantum emitter; quantum optics; Gold; Density of states; Vacancies; Nanopositioning; Synthetic diamond; Fluorescence; Quantum optics; Low intensity; Infrared spectra; Electron microscopy; Nanoelectronics; Polycrystalline diamond; Near infrared radiation; Lifetime; Trapping; Near infrared spectrum; Imaging; Illumination; Plasmons; Nanostructured materials; Antennas; Fluorescence microscopy; Nanoantenna
• DOI: 10.1021/nl4047587
• ISSN: 1530-6984; 1530-6992

Nanopositioning of single quantum emitters to control their coupling to integrated photonic structures is a crucial step in the fabrication of solid-state quantum optics devices. We use the optical near-field enhancement produced by nanofabricated gold antennas subject to near-infrared illumination to deterministically trap and position single nanodiamonds (NDs) hosting nitrogen-vacancy (NV) centers. The positioning of the NDs at the antenna regions of maximum field intensity is first characterized using both fluorescence and electron microscopy imaging. We further study the interaction between the nanoantenna and the delivered NV center by analyzing its change in fluorescence lifetime, which is driven by the increase in the local density of optical states at the trapping positions. Additionally, the plasmonic enhancement of the near-field intensity allows us to optically control the NV excited lifetime using relatively low NIR illumination intensities, some 20 times lower than in the absence of the antennas.