Microsphere-enhanced fluorescence collection for nitrogen vacancy centers in diamond

We report experimental studies of microsphere-enhanced fluorescence collection of nitrogen vacancy (NV) centers using silica microspheres with diameters ranging between 15 and 50 μm and employing 20× and 40× objectives with numerical aperture of 0.42 and 0.64, respectively. Photoluminescence-excitation saturation counts as high as 95 kHz have been observed. These studies show that due to the effective collimation of fluorescence by the microsphere, objectives with relatively low numerical aperture (NA) can be used without sacrificing collection enhancement, in agreement with a theoretical model based on Mie scattering. The large enhancement of fluorescence collection with relatively low NA objectives, which feature extralong working distance and are relatively inexpensive, can potentially enable wider use of NV-based quantum sensing in real world applications.