Patterning metamaterials for fast and efficient single-photon sources

摘要

Solid state quantum emitters are prime candidates to realize fast on-demand single-photon sources. The improvement in photon emission and collection efficiencies for quantum emitters, such as nitrogen-vacancy (NV) centers in diamond, can be achieved by using a near-field coupling to nanophotonic structures. Plasmonic metamaterial structures with hyperbolic dispersion have been previously demonstrated to significantly increase the fluorescence decay rates from NV centers. However, the electromagnetic waves propagating inside the metamaterial must be outcoupled before they succumb to ohmic losses. We propose a nano-grooved hyperbolic metamaterial that improves the collection efficiency from a nanodiamond-based NV center by a factor of 4.3 compared to the case of coupling to a flat metamaterial. Our design can be utilized to achieve highly efficient and fast single-photon sources based on a variety of quantum emitters.