Assembly of fundamental photonic elements from single nanodiamonds

We demonstrate the ability to modify the emission properties and enhance the interaction strength of single emitters coupled to nanophotonic structures based on metals and dielectrics. Assembly of individual diamond nanocrystals, metal nanoparticles and photonic crystal cavities to meta-structures is introduced. Experiments concerning controlled coupling of single defect centers in nanodiamonds to silver nanowires with the goal to investigate quantum plasmonic effects are reported. Furthermore, we demonstrate the formation of a hybrid cavity system in which metal nanostructures are evanescently coupled to a dielectric photonic crystal cavity. This structure allows combined exploitation of both resonant dielectric as well as plasmonic enhancement.