Single crystal diamond pyramids for applications in nanoscale quantum sensing

We present a new approach combining top down fabrication and bottom up overgrowth to create diamond photonic nanostructures in the form of single-crystalline diamond nanopyramids. Our approach relies on diamond nanopillars, that are overgrown with single-crystalline diamond to form pyramidal structures oriented along crystal facets. To characterize the photonic properties of the pyramids, color centers are created in a controlled way using ion implantation and annealing. We find very high collection efficiency from color centers close to the pyramid apex. We further show excellent smoothness and sharpness of our diamond pyramids with measured tip radii on the order of 10 nm. Our results offer interesting prospects for nanoscale quantum sensing using diamond color centers, where our diamond pyramids could be used as scanning probes for nanoscale imaging. There, our approach would offer significant advantages compared to the cone-shaped scanning probes which define the current state of the art. (C) 2020 Optical Society of America under the terms of the OSA Open Access Publishing Agreement.