Room-temperature spontaneous superradiance from single diamond nanocrystals

Superradiance (SR) is a cooperative phenomenon which occurs when an ensemble of quantum emitters couples collectively to a mode of the electromagnetic field as a single, massive dipole that radiates photons at an enhanced rate. Previous studies on solid-state systems either reported SR from sizeable crystals with at least one spatial dimension much larger than the wavelength of the light and/or only close to liquid-helium temperatures. Here, we report the observation of room-temperature superradiance from single, highly luminescent diamond nanocrystals with spatial dimensions much smaller than the wavelength of light, and each containing a large number (similar to 10(3)) of embedded nitrogen-vacancy (NV) centres. The results pave the way towards a systematic study of SR in a well-controlled, solid-state quantum system at room temperature.