Hybrid integration of ensemble nitrogen-vacancy centers in single-crystal diamond based on pick-flip-and-place transfer printing

Incorporating color centers in diamond with mature integrated photonics using hybrid integration techniques such as transfer printing provides a promising route toward scalable quantum applications. However, single-crystal diamond nanostructures fabricated using current etching technologies have triangular bottoms that are unsuitable for conventional pick-and-place integration. Herein, we present an alternative approach for deterministically integrating diamond nanostructures on chip. We demonstrate the hybrid integration of a diamond triangular nanobeam containing a nitrogen-vacancy ensemble on an SiO2 chip by picking it up using a weak adhesive film, flipping it, and transferring it to a stronger one. This “pick-flip-and-place” approach provides a flat diamond-chip interface, enabling the high-yield hybrid integration regardless of the shape of diamond nanostructures. Additionally, diamond nanofabrication is facilitated by transfer-printing hard masks for diamond etching. We also show that the integrated diamond nanobeam functions as a nanoscale quantum sensor. Our proposed approach paves the way toward scalable hybrid-diamond quantum photonics.