DiESiS
Diamond-based Electrically-controlled Single-photon Sources
Principal Investigator: Dr. Jacopo Forneris
Duration: 2016-2017
Budget: 120 kEUR
The INFN 5th National Commission (Technological Research) has approved a Young Researcher Grant for Dr. Jacopo Forneris in 2016-2017 for the DIESIS Research Project. The research will focus on the electrical stimulation of single-photon sources in artificial, with applications in quantum optics and quantum sensing.
Artificial diamond is a promising material for the development of single-photon sources, as it can host many lattice defects
optically active in the visible spectrum (known as "color centers"). Several color centers exhibit interesting properties in terms
of spectral emission and electronic spin.
The DiESiS research projects aims at the fabrication and electrical control of diamond color centers, and at their utilization as
single-photon sources in the field of quantum technologies for applications in fundamental physics, quantum sensing and quantum
communication.
The research project has two main goals:
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The fabrication of diamond-based devices for the electrical stimulation and control of color centers.
Ion beams with energy < 10 MeV will be exploited to create color centers, through implantation at low fluences of given ion species in diamond. The color centers will be then characterized in their emission properties by means of a single-photon sensitive confocal microscope. On the other hand, high ion implantation fluences will be adopted for the fabrication, through radiation-induced lattice damage, of sub-superficial graphitic electrodes in diamond. MeV ion beam lithography techniques developed in the INFN DINAMO Research Project will be exploited for this purpose.
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The stimulation and control of color centers' single-photon emission properties through applied electromagnetic fields.
Particularly, while the main results achieved at the state of the art are based on the optical stimulation of color centers (photoluminescence), the DIESIS project aims at a fully-electrical control of single-photon sources by means of ion-beam-micromachines electroluminescent diamond devices. Such result would enable the fabrication of solid state devices with an immediate integration in electrical circuits, for quantum technologies applications.
Additionally, the application of oscillating fields would enable the control of the spin state of the nitrogen-vacancy complex (NV center) and its optical readout in photoluminescence regime, with intriguing application in the fields of nano-sensing and quantum computing.
