Rare earth - diamond hybrid materials for photonics
Hybrid materials associate distinct components to achieve new functionalities. The key challenge in these composite systems is to harness new effects that cannot be obtained by a single material while preserving the necessary underlying properties of each component - a tremendously difficult task in materials science. The fantastic achievements of micro-electronics in this field have boosted similar developments in optics, and especially in the infrared range, where integrated optical chips combine a variety of functionalities like light sources, modulators, and detectors in circuits based on low-loss waveguides. In particular, silicon integrated optics have witnessed impressive scientific and technological progress as well as industrial production, since this architecture offers seamless integration between optics and electronics.   Among optically active materials, NV- color centers in diamond and rare earth doped crystals have both exceptional properties that are separately used in, or investigated for, a broad range of applications such as lasers, lighting, fluorescence-based sensing and imaging, and quantum technologies like quantum processing, sensing and communications.  In RareDiamond, I will design and grow hybrid materials in which rare earth ions and NV- centers can interact on the nanoscale while preserving their outstanding properties. This will be achieved using techniques allowing the growth of complex, high-quality structures with extreme localization of active centers, combined with advanced spectroscopy. These materials will enable interfacing diamond NV- centers with infrared light, a capability currently out of reach that I will exploit for innovative demonstrations in magnetometry, fluorescent imaging, and quantum light-matter interfacing. RareDiamond hybrid materials will open the way to diamond NV- integration with photonic chips and telecom fibers, for unprecedented functionalities in sensing, quantum processing, and quantum communications.