Microscopic diamond solid-immersion-lenses fabricated around single defect centers by focused ion beam milling.

Recent efforts to define microscopic solid-immersion-lenses (SIL) by focused ion beam milling into diamond substrates that are registered to a preselected single photon emitter are summarized. We show how we determine the position of a single emitter with at least 100 nm lateral and 500 nm axial accuracy, and how the milling procedure is optimized. The characteristics of a single emitter, a Nitrogen Vacancy (NV) center in diamond, are measured before and after producing the SIL and compared with each other. A count rate of 1.0 × 10(6) counts/s is achieved with a [111] oriented NV center.