Additive GaN solid immersion lenses for enhanced photon extraction efficiency from diamond color centers

Effective light extraction from optically active solid-state spin centers inside high-index semiconductor host crystals is an important factor in integrating these pseudo-atomic centers in wider quantum systems. Here, we report increased fluorescent light collection efficiency from laser-written nit...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Cheng, X, Wessling, NK, Ghosh, S, Kirkpatrick, AR, Kappers, MJ, Lekhai, YND, Morley, GW, Oliver, RA, Smith, JM, Dawson, MD, Salter, PS, Strain, MJ
Format: Journal article
Language:English
Published: American Chemical Society 2023
Description
Summary:Effective light extraction from optically active solid-state spin centers inside high-index semiconductor host crystals is an important factor in integrating these pseudo-atomic centers in wider quantum systems. Here, we report increased fluorescent light collection efficiency from laser-written nitrogen-vacancy (NV) centers in bulk diamond facilitated by micro-transfer printed GaN solid immersion lenses. Both laser-writing of NV centers and transfer printing of micro-lens structures are compatible with high spatial resolution, enabling deterministic fabrication routes toward future scalable systems development. The micro-lenses are integrated in a noninvasive manner, as they are added on top of the unstructured diamond surface and bonded by van der Waals forces. For emitters at 5 μm depth, we find approximately 2× improvement of fluorescent light collection using an air objective with a numerical aperture of NA = 0.95 in good agreement with simulations. Similarly, the solid immersion lenses strongly enhance light collection when using an objective with NA = 0.5, significantly improving the signal-to-noise ratio of the NV center emission while maintaining the NV’s quantum properties after integration.