Fabrication and characterization of high-quality-factor silicon nitride nanobeam cavities

Abstract

We present the fabrication and characterization of high-quality-factor (Q) ${\mathrm{Si}}_3{\mathrm{N}}_4$ photonic crystal nanobeam cavities at visible wavelengths for coupling to nitrogen-vacancy centers in a cavity QED system. Confocal microphotoluminescence analysis of the nanobeam cavities demonstrates quality factors up to Q ~ 55,000, which are limited by the resolution of our grating spectrometer. This is a 1-order-of-magnitude improvement over previous ${\mathrm{SiN}}_x$ cavities at this important wavelength range. We also demonstrate coarse tuning of cavity resonances across $600–700\mathrm{nm}$ by lithographically scaling the size of fabricated devices.

© 2011 Optical Society of America