Coupling of silicon-vacancy centers to a single crystal diamond cavity

Optical coupling of an ensemble of silicon-vacancy (SiV) centers to single-crystal diamond microdisk cavities is demonstrated. The cavities are fabricated from a single-crystal diamond membrane generated by ion implantation and electrochemical liftoff followed by homo-epitaxial overgrowth. Whispering gallery modes spectrally overlap with the zerophonon line (ZPL) of the SiV centers and exhibit quality factors ∼ 2200. Lifetime reduction from 1.8 ns to 1.48 ns is observed from SiV centers in the cavity compared to those in the membrane outside the cavity. These results are pivotal in developing diamond integrated photonics networks. © 2012 Optical Society of America