title: Stimulated emission from nitrogen-vacancy centres in diamond.
abstract: Stimulated emission is the process fundamental to laser operation, thereby producing coherent photon output. Despite negatively charged nitrogen-vacancy (NV-) centres being discussed as a potential laser medium since the 1980s, there have been no definitive observations of stimulated emission from ensembles of NV-to date. Here we show both theoretical and experimental evidence for stimulated emission from NV-using light in the phonon sidebands around 700 nm. Furthermore, we show the transition from stimulated emission to photoionization as the stimulating laser wavelength is reduced from 700 to 620 nm. While lasing at the zero-phonon line is suppressed by ionization, our results open the possibility of diamond lasers based on NV-centres, tuneable over the phonon sideband. This broadens the applications of NV-magnetometers from single centre nanoscale sensors to a new generation of ultra-precise ensemble laser sensors, which exploit the contrast and signal amplification of a lasing system.
authors.affiliation: Chemical and Quantum Physics, School of Science, RMIT University, Melbourne, Victoria 3001, Australia.
authors.forename: Jan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Jeske
authors.affiliation: ARC Centre of Excellence for Nanoscale BioPhotonics, School of Science, RMIT University, Melbourne, Victoria 3001, Australia.
authors.forename: Desmond W M
authors.initials: DW
authors.lastname: Lau
authors.affiliation: ARC Centre of Excellence for Engineered Quantum Systems, Department of Physics and Astronomy, Macquarie University, North Ryde Sydney, New South Wales 2109, Australia.
authors.forename: Xavier
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Vidal
authors.affiliation: Institut für Quantenoptik, Universität Ulm, Albert Einstein Allee 11, 89081 Ulm, Germany.
authors.forename: Liam P
authors.initials: LP
authors.lastname: McGuinness
authors.affiliation: ARC Centre of Excellence for Nanoscale BioPhotonics, School of Science, RMIT University, Melbourne, Victoria 3001, Australia.
authors.forename: Philipp
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Reineck
authors.affiliation: School of Physics, University of Melbourne, Parkville, Melbourne, Victoria 3010, Australia.
authors.forename: Brett C
authors.initials: BC
authors.lastname: Johnson
authors.affiliation: Laser Physics Centre, Research School of Physics and Engineering, Australian National University, Canberra, Australian Capital Territory 2601, Australia.
authors.forename: Marcus W
authors.identifier: 0000-0002-5473-6481
authors.initials: MW
authors.lastname: Doherty
authors.affiliation: School of Physics, University of Melbourne, Parkville, Melbourne, Victoria 3010, Australia.
authors.forename: Jeffrey C
authors.initials: JC
authors.lastname: McCallum
authors.affiliation: National Institutes for Quantum and Radiological Science and Technology, Takasaki, Gunma 370-1292, Japan.
authors.forename: Shinobu
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Onoda
authors.affiliation: Institut für Quantenoptik, Universität Ulm, Albert Einstein Allee 11, 89081 Ulm, Germany.
authors.forename: Fedor
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Jelezko
authors.affiliation: National Institutes for Quantum and Radiological Science and Technology, Takasaki, Gunma 370-1292, Japan.
authors.forename: Takeshi
authors.identifier: 0000-0002-7850-3164
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Ohshima
authors.affiliation: ARC Centre of Excellence for Engineered Quantum Systems, Department of Physics and Astronomy, Macquarie University, North Ryde Sydney, New South Wales 2109, Australia.
authors.forename: Thomas
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Volz
authors.affiliation: Chemical and Quantum Physics, School of Science, RMIT University, Melbourne, Victoria 3001, Australia.
authors.forename: Jared H
authors.initials: JH
authors.lastname: Cole
authors.affiliation: ARC Centre of Excellence for Nanoscale BioPhotonics, School of Science, RMIT University, Melbourne, Victoria 3001, Australia.
authors.forename: Brant C
authors.initials: BC
authors.lastname: Gibson
authors.affiliation: Chemical and Quantum Physics, School of Science, RMIT University, Melbourne, Victoria 3001, Australia.|ARC Centre of Excellence for Nanoscale BioPhotonics, School of Science, RMIT University, Melbourne, Victoria 3001, Australia.
authors.forename: Andrew D
authors.initials: AD
authors.lastname: Greentree