Excitation of nanowire surface plasmons by silicon vacancy centers in nanodiamonds

Silicon vacancy (SiV) centers in diamonds have emerged as a very promising candidate for quantum emitters due to their narrow emission line resulting in their indistinguishability. While many different quantum emitters have already been used for the excitation of various propagating plasmonic modes, the corresponding exploitation of SiV centers has remained so far uncharted territory. Here, we report on the excitation of surface plasmon modes supported by silver nanowires using SiV centers in nanodiamonds. The coupling of SiV center fluorescence to surface plasmons is observed, when a nanodiamond situated close to a nanowire is illuminated by the pump, as radiated emission from the distal nanowire end. The effect of coupling is also seen as a change in the SiV center lifetime. Finally, we discuss possible avenues for strengthening the SiV center coupling to surface plasmon modes. (C) 2017 Optical Society of America.