  The development of a robust light source that emits one photon at a time is
an outstanding challenge in quantum science and technology. Here, at the
transition from many to single photon optical communication systems, fully
quantum mechanical effects may be utilized to achieve new capabilities, most
notably perfectly secure communication via quantum cryptography. Practical
implementations place stringent requirements on the device properties,
including stable photon generation, room temperature operation, and efficient
extraction of many photons. Single photon light emitting devices based on
fluorescent dye molecules, quantum dots, and carbon nanotube material systems
have all been explored, but none have simultaneously demonstrated all criteria.
Here, we describe the design, fabrication, and characterization of a bright
source of single photons consisting of an individual Nitrogen-vacancy color
center (NV center) in a diamond nanowire operating in ambient conditions. The
nanowire plays a positive role in increasing the number of single photons
collected from the NV center by an order of magnitude over devices based on
bulk diamond crystals, and allows operation at an order of magnitude lower
power levels. This result enables a new class of nanostructured diamond devices
for room temperature photonic and quantum information processing applications,
and will also impact fields as diverse as biological and chemical sensing,
opto-mechanics, and scanning-probe microscopy.
