Room-temperature spontaneous superradiance from single diamond nanocrystals

• DOI: 10.1038/s41467-017-01397-4
• Publication Date: 2017-10-25T13:37:57Z
• Authors: Carlo Bradac; Mattias T. Johnsson; Matthew van Breugel; Ben Q. Baragiola; Rochelle Martin; Mathieu L. Juan; Gavin K. Brennen; Thomas Volz
• Keywords: Quantum Physics; Condensed Matter - Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics; Science; Q; Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics (cond-mat.mes-hall); 0103 physical sciences; FOS: Physical sciences; 02 engineering and technology; Quantum Physics (quant-ph); 0210 nano-technology; 7. Clean energy; 01 natural sciences; Article

AbstractSuperradiance (SR) is a cooperative phenomenon which occurs when an ensemble of quantum emitters couples collectively to a mode of the electromagnetic field as a single, massive dipole that radiates photons at an enhanced rate. Previous studies on solid-state systems either reported SR from sizeable crystals with at least one spatial dimension much larger than the wavelength of the light and/or only close to liquid-helium temperatures. Here, we report the observation of room-temperature superradiance from single, highly luminescent diamond nanocrystals with spatial dimensions much smaller than the wavelength of light, and each containing a large number (~ 103) of embedded nitrogen-vacancy (NV) centres. The results pave the way towards a systematic study of SR in a well-controlled, solid-state quantum system at room temperature.