We investigate bright fluorescence of nitrogen (NV)- and silicon-vacancy color centers in pyramidal, single crystal diamond tips, which are commercially available as atomic force microscope probes. We coherently manipulate NV electronic spin ensembles with T2 = 7.7(3) μs. Color center lifetimes in different tip heights indicate effective refractive index effects and quenching. Using numerical simulations, we verify enhanced photon rates from emitters close to the pyramid apex rendering them promising as scanning probe sensors.

Many promising applications of single crystal diamond and its color centers as sensor platform and in photonics require free-standing membranes with a thickness ranging from several micrometers to the few 100 nm range. In this work, we present an approach to conveniently fabricate such thin membranes with up to about one millimeter in size. We use commercially available diamond plates (thickness 50 μm) in an inductively coupled reactive ion etching process which is based on argon, oxygen and SF6. We thus avoid using toxic, corrosive feed gases and add an alternative to previously presented recipes involving chlorine-based etching steps. Our membranes are smooth (RMS roughness <1 nm) and show moderate thickness variation (central part: <1 μm over ≈200 × 200 μm2). Due to an improved etch mask geometry, our membranes stay reliably attached to the diamond plate in our chlorine-based as well as SF6-based processes. Our results thus open the route towards higher reliability in diamond device fabrication and up-scaling.

Individual, luminescent point defects in solids, so-called color centers, are atomic-sized quantum systems enabling sensing and imaging with nanoscale spatial resolution. In this overview, we introduce nanoscale sensing based on individual nitrogen vacancy (NV) centers in diamond. We discuss two central challenges of the field: first, the creation of highly-coherent, shallow NV centers less than 10 nm below the surface of a single-crystal diamond; second, the fabrication of tip-like photonic nanostructures that enable efficient fluorescence collection and can be used for scanning probe imaging based on color centers with nanoscale resolution.

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