Optical interaction of the NV- centre in diamond with a plasmonic metal nanoparticle

Abstract: We present a rigorous theoretical model for the optical interaction between a nitrogen-vacancy (NV) centre in diamond and a plasmonic metal nanoparticle (MNP), accompanied by a computationally efficient procedure to solve the evolution. The proposed model enables us to successfully explain existing optical emission measurements of NV centres both in the presence and absence of a metal nanoparticle. We show that the NV-plasmon interaction provides a versatile new avenue to enhance and control the optical emission of an NV centre. Changes to the MNP type and size, NV-MNP centre separation, submerging medium permittivity, and NV orientation with respect to the MNP surface can be exploited to improve a plethora of NV centre based nanodevices.