Zhihong Huang

Coupling of nitrogen-vacancy centers to photonic crystal resonators in monocrystalline diamond

The zero-phonon transition rate for nitrogen-vacancy centers is enhanced by coupling to photonic crystal resonators fabricated in monocrystalline diamond. Autocorrelation measurements on the spectrally filtered zero-phonon line demonstrate coupling of a single emitter.

Quantum photonic devices in single-crystal diamond

Nitrogen–vacancy centers in diamond have outstanding quantum optical properties that enable applications in information processing and sensing. As with most solid-state systems for quantum photonic applications, the great promise lies in the capability to embed them in an on-chip optical network. Here we present basic integrated devices composed of diamond micro-ring resonators coupled to waveguides that are terminated with grating out-couplers. Strong enhancement is observed for the zero-phonon line of nitrogen–vacancy centers coupled to the ring resonance. The zero-phonon line is efficiently coupled from the ring into the waveguide and then scattered out of plane by the grating out-couplers.

High-sensitivity magnetometry based on quantum beats in diamond nitrogen-vacancy centers

We demonstrate an absolute magnetometer based on quantum beats in the ground state of nitrogen-vacancy centers in diamond. We show that, by eliminating the dependence of spin evolution on the zero-field splitting D, the magnetometer is immune to temperature fluctuation and strain inhomogeneity. We apply this technique to measure low-frequency magnetic field noise by using a single nitrogen-vacancy center located within 500 nm of the surface of an isotopically pure (99.99% 12C) diamond. The photon-shot-noise limited sensitivity achieves 38  nT/sqrt[Hz] for 4.45 s acquisition time, a factor of sqrt[2] better than the implementation which uses only two spin levels. For long acquisition times (>10  s), we realize up to a factor of 15 improvement in magnetic sensitivity, which demonstrates the robustness of our technique against thermal drifts. Applying our technique to nitrogen-vacancy center ensembles, we eliminate dephasing from longitudinal strain inhomogeneity, resulting in a factor of 2.3 improvement in sensitivity.

Teardrop Reflector-Assisted Unidirectional Hybrid Silicon Microring Lasers

We study directional bistability in hybrid silicon microring lasers and demonstrate a unidirectional laser. Unidirectional emission is achieved by integrating a passive reflector that feeds laser emission back into the laser cavity to introduce an extra unidirectional gain. We show that the length of the passive reflector is a critical parameter in determining the lasing behavior.

Diamond nitrogen-vacancy centers created by scanning focused helium ion beam and annealing

We demonstrate a method to create nitrogen-vacancy (NV) centers in diamond using focused helium ion microscopy. Near-surface NV centers can be created with spatial resolution below 0.6 μm. We studied the density, creation efficiency, and spectral linewidths at optical and microwave frequencies for NV centers produced using various helium ion implantation doses. The optical linewidths are narrower than those of similar nitrogen-vacancy centers produced using nitrogen ion implantation.

Near-surface spectrally stable nitrogen vacancy centres engineered in single crystal diamond.

A method for engineering thin (<100 nm) layers of homoepitaxial diamond containing high quality, spectrally stable, isolated nitrogen-vacancy (NV) centres is reported. The photoluminescence excitation linewidth of the engineered NVs are as low as 140 MHz, at temperatures below 12 K, while the spin properties are at a level suitable for quantum memory and spin register applications. This methodology of NV fabrication is an important step toward scalable and practical diamond based photonic devices suitable for quantum information processing.

25 Gbps low-voltage waveguide Si–Ge avalanche photodiode

We demonstrate a waveguide Si-Ge avalanche photodiode with a breakdown voltage of -10V, a speed of 25GHz, and a gain-bandwidth product of 276GHz. The APD optical receiver achieved sensitivities of -25dBm and -16dBm at 12.5Gbps and 25Gbps at 1550nm, respectively.

Low-Loss Millimeter-Length Waveguides and Grating Couplers in Single-Crystal Diamond

We report on the design, fabrication, and characterization of millimeter-length strip waveguides with monolithic grating couplers in commercially available synthetic single-crystal diamond. To minimize the device footprint and the influence of the wafer wedge of the single-crystal diamond thin plate, we adopt a curled waveguide layout. The devices are fabricated using electron-beam lithography and reactive-ion etching. To improve the e-beam patterning accuracy of the grating etch masks, we apply proximity-effect compensation on the gratings and tapers. The linear characterization results indicate a waveguide attenuation of 6.5 dB/mm and a grating transmission of -6.3 dB in the fiber-optic communication C band. These results demonstrate the feasibility of fabricating long waveguides and integrated grating couplers in single-crystal diamond. Our research findings would be beneficial for further exploring quantum and nonlinear optics in integrated single-crystal diamond devices.

Reflection-assisted unidirectional hybrid silicon microring lasers

We study directional bistability in hybrid silicon microring lasers and demonstrate an unidirectional laser. Unidirectional emission is achieved by integrating a passive reflector that feeds laser emission back into laser cavity to introduce extra unidirectional gain. We show that the length of the passive reflector is a critical parameter in determining the lasing behavior.

Towards integrated optical quantum networks in diamond

We demonstrate coupling between the zero phonon line (ZPL) of nitrogen-vacancy centers in diamond and the modes of optical micro-resonators fabricated in single crystal diamond membranes sitting on a silicon dioxide substrate. A more than ten-fold enhancement of the ZPL is estimated by measuring the modification of the spontaneous emission lifetime. The cavity-coupled ZPL emission was further coupled into on-chip waveguides thus demonstrating the potential to build optical quantum networks in this diamond on insulator platform.