High quality-factor optical nanocavities in bulk single-crystal diamond

• Published in: Nature communications Vol. 5; no. 1; p. 5718
• Main Authors: Burek, Michael J., Chu, Yiwen, Liddy, Madelaine S. Z., Patel, Parth, Rochman, Jake, Meesala, Srujan, Hong, Wooyoung, Quan, Qimin, Lukin, Mikhail D., Lončar, Marko
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Nature Publishing Group UK 16-12-2014; Nature Publishing Group
• Subjects: 140/125; 142/126; 639/624/1075; 639/624/399/1098; 639/766/400/1021; Humanities and Social Sciences; multidisciplinary; Science; Science (multidisciplinary)
• ISSN: 2041-1723; 2041-1723
• DOI: 10.1038/ncomms6718

Single-crystal diamond, with its unique optical, mechanical and thermal properties, has emerged as a promising material with applications in classical and quantum optics. However, the lack of heteroepitaxial growth and scalable fabrication techniques remains the major limiting factors preventing more wide-spread development and application of diamond photonics. In this work, we overcome this difficulty by adapting angled-etching techniques, previously developed for realization of diamond nanomechanical resonators, to fabricate racetrack resonators and photonic crystal cavities in bulk single-crystal diamond. Our devices feature large optical quality factors, in excess of 10
5
, and operate over a wide wavelength range, spanning visible and telecom. These newly developed high-Q diamond optical nanocavities open the door for a wealth of applications, ranging from nonlinear optics and chemical sensing, to quantum information processing and cavity optomechanics.
Single-crystal diamond is a promising material for applications in classical and quantum optics, but the lack of scalable fabrication remains an issue. Here, Burek
et al
. adapt angle-etching nanofabrication techniques to realize ring resonators and photonic crystal cavities in single crystal diamond with quality factors in excess of 10
5
.