Shallow Silicon Vacancy Centers with Lifetime-Limited Optical Linewidths in Diamond Nanostructures.

The negatively charged silicon vacancy center (SiV-) in diamond is a promising, yet underexplored candidate for single-spin quantum sensing at sub-kelvin temperatures and tesla-range magnetic fields. A key ingredient for such applications is the ability to perform all-optical, coherent addressing of the electronic spin of near-surface SiV- centers. We present a robust and scalable approach for creating individual, ∼50 nm deep SiV- with lifetime-limited optical linewidths in diamond nanopillars through an easy-to-realize and persistent optical charge-stabilization scheme. The latter is based on single, prolonged 445 nm laser illumination that enables continuous photoluminescence excitation spectroscopy without the need for any further charge stabilization or repumping. Our results constitute a key step toward the use of near-surface, optically coherent SiV- for sensing under extreme conditions, and offer a powerful approach for stabilizing the charge-environment of diamond color centers for quantum technology applications.

Neutral Silicon Vacancy Centers in Undoped Diamond via Surface Control.

Neutral silicon vacancy centers (SiV^{0}) in diamond are promising candidates for quantum applications; however, stabilizing SiV^{0} requires high-purity, boron-doped diamond, which is not a readily available material. Here, we demonstrate an alternative approach via chemical control of the diamond surface. We use low-damage chemical processing and annealing in a hydrogen environment to realize reversible and highly stable charge state tuning in undoped diamond. The resulting SiV^{0} centers display optically detected magnetic resonance and bulklike optical properties. Controlling the charge state tuning via surface termination offers a route for scalable technologies based on SiV^{0} centers, as well as charge state engineering of other defects.

Flexomagnetism and vertically graded Néel temperature of antiferromagnetic Cr2O3 thin films.

Antiferromagnetic insulators are a prospective materials platform for magnonics, spin superfluidity, THz spintronics, and non-volatile data storage. A magnetomechanical coupling in antiferromagnets offers vast advantages in the control and manipulation of the primary order parameter yet remains largely unexplored. Here, we discover a new member in the family of flexoeffects in thin films of Cr2O3. We demonstrate that a gradient of mechanical strain can impact the magnetic phase transition resulting in the distribution of the Néel temperature along the thickness of a 50-nm-thick film. The inhomogeneous reduction of the antiferromagnetic order parameter induces a flexomagnetic coefficient of about 15 µB nm-2. The antiferromagnetic ordering in the inhomogeneously strained films can persist up to 100 °C, rendering Cr2O3 relevant for industrial electronics applications. Strain gradient in Cr2O3 thin films enables fundamental research on magnetomechanics and thermodynamics of antiferromagnetic solitons, spin waves and artificial spin ice systems in magnetic materials with continuously graded parameters.

Nanomagnetism of Magnetoelectric Granular Thin-Film Antiferromagnets.

Antiferromagnets have recently emerged as attractive platforms for spintronics applications, offering fundamentally new functionalities compared with their ferromagnetic counterparts. Whereas nanoscale thin-film materials are key to the development of future antiferromagnetic spintronic technologies, existing experimental tools tend to suffer from low resolution or expensive and complex equipment requirements. We offer a simple, high-resolution alternative by addressing the ubiquitous surface magnetization of magnetoelectric antiferromagnets in a granular thin-film sample on the nanoscale using single-spin magnetometry in combination with spin-sensitive transport experiments. Specifically, we quantitatively image the evolution of individual nanoscale antiferromagnetic domains in 200 nm thin films of Cr2O3 in real space and across the paramagnet-to-antiferromagnet phase transition, finding an average domain size of 230 nm, several times larger than the average grain size in the film. These experiments allow us to discern key properties of the Cr2O3 thin film, including the boundary magnetic moment density, the variation of critical temperature throughout the film, the mechanism of domain formation, and the strength of exchange coupling between individual grains comprising the film. Our work offers novel insights into the magnetic ordering mechanism of Cr2O3 and firmly establishes single-spin magnetometry as a versatile and widely applicable tool for addressing antiferromagnetic thin films on the nanoscale.

Efficient Extraction of Light from a Nitrogen-Vacancy Center in a Diamond Parabolic Reflector.

Quantum emitters in solids are being developed for a range of quantum technologies, including quantum networks, computing, and sensing. However, a remaining challenge is the poor photon collection due to the high refractive index of most host materials. Here we overcome this limitation by introducing monolithic parabolic reflectors as an efficient geometry for broadband photon extraction from quantum emitter and experimentally demonstrate this device for the nitrogen-vacancy (NV) center in diamond. Simulations indicate a photon collection efficiency exceeding 75% across the visible spectrum and experimental devices, fabricated using a high-throughput gray scale lithography process, demonstrating a photon extraction efficiency of (41 ± 5)%. This device enables a raw experimental detection efficiency of (12 ± 1)% with fluorescence detection rates as high as (4.114 ± 0.003) × 106 counts per second (cps) from a single NV center. Enabled by our deterministic emitter localization and fabrication process, we find a high number of exceptional devices with an average count rate of (3.1 ± 0.9) × 106 cps.

Depolarization Dynamics in a Strongly Interacting Solid-State Spin Ensemble.

We study the depolarization dynamics of a dense ensemble of dipolar interacting spins, associated with nitrogen-vacancy centers in diamond. We observe anomalously fast, density-dependent, and nonexponential spin relaxation. To explain these observations, we propose a microscopic model where an interplay of long-range interactions, disorder, and dissipation leads to predictions that are in quantitative agreement with both current and prior experimental results. Our results pave the way for controlled many-body experiments with long-lived and strongly interacting ensembles of solid-state spins.

Free-standing mechanical and photonic nanostructures in single-crystal diamond.

A variety of nanoscale photonic, mechanical, electronic, and optoelectronic devices require scalable thin film fabrication. Typically, the device layer is defined by thin film deposition on a substrate of a different material, and optical or electrical isolation is provided by the material properties of the substrate or by removal of the substrate. For a number of materials this planar approach is not feasible, and new fabrication techniques are required to realize complex nanoscale devices. Here, we report a three-dimensional fabrication technique based on anisotropic plasma etching at an oblique angle to the sample surface. As a proof of concept, this angled-etching methodology is used to fabricate free-standing nanoscale components in bulk single-crystal diamond, including nanobeam mechanical resonators, optical waveguides, and photonic crystal and microdisk cavities. Potential applications of the fabricated prototypes range from classical and quantum photonic devices to nanomechanical-based sensors and actuators.

Tailoring light-matter interaction with a nanoscale plasmon resonator.

We propose and demonstrate a new approach for achieving enhanced light-matter interactions with quantum emitters. Our approach makes use of a plasmon resonator composed of defect-free, highly crystalline silver nanowires surrounded by patterned dielectric distributed Bragg reflectors. These resonators have an effective mode volume (V(eff)) 2 orders of magnitude below the diffraction limit and a quality factor (Q) approaching 100, enabling enhancement of spontaneous emission rates by a factor exceeding 75 at the cavity resonance. We also show that these resonators can be used to convert a broadband quantum emitter to a narrow-band single-photon source with color-selective emission enhancement.