Low-temperature optical characterization of a near-infrared single-photon emitter in nanodiamonds

In this paper, we study the optical properties of single defects emitting in the near infrared (NIR) in nanodiamonds at liquid helium temperature. The nanodiamonds are synthesized using a microwave chemical vapor deposition method followed by nickel implantation and annealing. We show that single defects exhibit several striking features at cryogenic temperature: the photoluminescence is strongly concentrated into a sharp zerophonon line (ZPL) in the NIR, the radiative lifetime is in the nanosecond range and the emission is linearly polarized. The spectral stability of the defects is then investigated. An optical resonance linewidth of 4 GHz is measured using resonant excitation on the ZPL. Although Fourier-transform-limited emission is not achieved, our results show that it might be possible to use consecutive photons emitted in the NIR by single defects in diamond nanocrystals to perform two photon interference experiments, which are at the heart of linear quantum computing protocols.