Deterministic coupling of delta-doped nitrogen vacancy centers to a nanobeam photonic crystal cavity

The negatively charged nitrogen vacancy center (NV) in diamond has generated significant interest as a platform for quantum information processing and sensing in the solid state. For most applications, high quality optical cavities are required to enhance the NV zero-phonon line (ZPL) emission. An outstanding challenge in maximizing the degree of NV-cavity coupling is the deterministic placement of NVs within the cavity. Here, we report photonic crystal nanobeam cavities coupled to NVs incorporated by a delta-doping technique that allows nanometer-scale vertical positioning of the emitters. We demonstrate cavities with Q up to similar to 24 000 and mode volume V similar to 0.47(lambda/n)(3) as well as resonant enhancement of the ZPL of an NV ensemble with Purcell factor of similar to 20. Our fabrication technique provides a first step towards deterministic NV-cavity coupling using spatial control of the emitters. (C) 2014 AIP Publishing LLC.