Excitation of surface plasmon polariton modes with multiple nitrogen vacancy centers in single nanodiamonds

Abstract

Abstract:Nitrogen-vacancy (NV) centers in diamonds are interesting due to their remarkable characteristics that are well suited to applications in quantum-information processing and magnetic field sensing, as well as representing stable fluorescent sources. Multiple NV centers in nanodiamonds (NDs) are especially useful as biological fluorophores due to their chemical neutrality, brightness and room-temperature photostability. Furthermore, NDs containing multiple NV centers also have potential in high-precision magnetic field and temperature sensing. Coupling NV centers to propagating surface plasmon polariton (SPP) modes gives a base for lab-on-achip sensing devices, allows enhanced fluorescence emission and collection which can further enhance the precision of NV-based sensors. Here, we investigate coupling of multiple NV centers in individual NDs to the SPP modes supported by silver surfaces protected by thin dielectric layers and by gold V-grooves (VGs) produced via the self-terminated silicon etching. In the first case, we concentrate on monitoring differences in fluorescence spectra obtained from a source ND, which is illuminated by a pump laser, and from a scattering ND illuminated only by the fluorescence-excited SPP radiation. In the second case, we observe changes in the average NV lifetime when the same ND is characterized outside and inside a VG. Fluorescence emission from the VG terminations is also observed, which confirms the NV coupling to the VG-supported SPP modes.

Propagation of Channel Plasmons at the Visible Regime in Aluminum V-Groove Waveguides

“…In an attempt to overcome the limitations of Au and Ag, it has been suggested that aluminum (Al) may be used as the material of choice for plasmonic devices in the visible and UV regimes, in which photon energies are higher than the Al interband transition energy, leading to a reduced absorption as compare with Au or Ag. − In this work we demonstrate experimentally the realization of aluminum plasmonic waveguides in a V-groove geometry, while our experiments are further supported by simulations. Previous studies have shown that V-groove plasmonic waveguides can be easily fabricated, allow efficient coupling even without the use of grating couplers, − can support highly confined CPP modes in the near IR when coated with Au, and offer a wide range of possibilities for plasmonic circuitry and manipulation of light in the nanoscale. − We show that V-groove plasmonic waveguides made of Al can support well-confined CPP modes at the short visible wavelength regime. The availability of such V groove based Al plasmonic waveguides enables interesting applications in areas such as quantum plasmonics, light harvesters, lab on chip components, as well as to the fundamental understanding of plasmon excitations and their interactions …”

Local density of electromagnetic states in plasmonic nanotapers: spatial resolution limits with nitrogen-vacancy centers in diamond nanospheres

“…This optical confinement is known as plasmonic nanofocusing [40][41][42][43][44][45][46][47][48][49]. Recently, the excitation of surface plasmon-polariton modes with multiple NV centers in single nanodiamonds on a silver-dielectric interface was demonstrated [50].…”

Tailored light emission from color centers in nanodiamond using self-assembled photonic crystals

“…However, the decay curve measured in the front-side geometry becomes faster than the reference sample emission decay curve. The decay spectra are fitted with a biexponential decay function, which yields two lifetime components (Kumar et al, 2015). The faster component τ 1 arises due to the presence of graphitic impurities whereas the slower component τ 2 is the actual lifetime of NV centers.…”