Preparations and applications of single color centers in the diamond

As a non-classical light source, single-photon source plays an essential role in the foundation of quantum physics and has been attracting a lot of attention of researchers over the world. Up to now, among different kinds of single-photon sources, single color centers in the diamond are very outstanding for the stable emission at room temperature as well as the spin controllability at ambient environment. Those color centers in the diamond with excellent properties are usually formed by impurity atoms and lattice vacancies. Nowadays, complex environments are necessary to the preparation of color centers generally. This restricts the research and applications of those color centers to a certain extent. Therefore, to develop efficient and high-precision fabrication methods of single color centers in the diamond at ambient environment is a need. On this condition, femtosecond (fs) laser process, a mature micro-nano processing technology, have been demonstrated to be a feasible, efficient, and fast production of the color centers in the diamond. This review discusses the state of the art in the preparation of single color centers in the diamond and their applications in different areas.