Lifetime investigation of single nitrogen vacancy centres in nanodiamonds

In this paper we investigate at room temperature the excited state lifetime of single NV-/NV0 in nanodiamonds at a variety of excitation wavelengths from 510 to 570 nm. The average lifetimes of 25 nanodiamonds with similar sizes exhibit constant values over the entire investigated spectral window. We conclude that the variation observed can be attributed to the specific nanodiamonds. Therefore it is sample dependent, rather than related to the photo-physical properties of the defects. Our study is relevant for the potential use of nanodiamonds containing NV in application where the lifetime is used for sensing the local nano-environment.