Lifetime Reduction and Enhanced Emission of Single Photon Color Centers in Nanodiamond via Surrounding Refractive Index Modification

The negatively-charged nitrogen vacancy (NV(−)) center in diamond is of great interest for quantum information processing and quantum key distribution applications due to its highly desirable long coherence times at room temperature. One of the challenges for their use in these applications involves the requirement to further optimize the lifetime and emission properties of the centers. Our results demonstrate the reduction of the lifetime of NV(−) centers, and hence an increase in the emission rate, achieved by modifying the refractive index of the environment surrounding the nanodiamond (ND). By coating the NDs in a polymer film, experimental results and numerical calculations show an average of 63% reduction in the lifetime and an average enhancement in the emission rate by a factor of 1.6. This strategy is also applicable for emitters other than diamond color centers where the particle refractive index is greater than the refractive index of the surrounding media.