Creation of Single Tin-Vacancy Color Centers in Small Nanodiamonds

Nanodiamonds containing single tin-vacancy (SnV) centers have the potential for integration into nanophotonic devices employed in quantum technologies such as quantum sensing, quantum information processing and quantum communication. The present study assessed single SnV centers in nanodiamonds less than 10 nm in size. Such centers were generated by implanting Sn ions into size-selected small nanodiamonds followed by high-temperature annealing. A sharp emission peak with a line width of 2.6 nm was observed at 618.7 nm, corresponding to the zero phonon line of SnV centers in bulk diamond. The Debye–Waller factor for this peak at room temperature was estimated to be 0.38 and so was slightly greater than the value for bulk diamond. A second-order correlation function yielded a g2(0) value of 0.04 ± 0.11, indicating single-photon emission. The successful creation of single SnV centers in nanodiamonds is a critical step toward integrating nanophotonic devices for photonic quantum technologies.