Nanodiamond induced high-Q resonances in defect-free photonic crystal slabs

We demonstrate that a high-Q photonic crystal cavity can be induced by the presence of a nanodiamond (ND) on the air-hole side wall in an otherwise defect-free photonic crystal. The ND itself acts as the perturbation, increasing the average refractive index, necessary to define the cavity; therefore self-aligned with the cavity. Such cavities are potentially useful for exploiting cavity quantum electro-dynamic interactions between fluorescent NDs and the cavity. A single ND can induce a cavity with Q~3 × 10(4) and two or more ND particles can induce a cavity with Q~1.5 × 10(5). We show numerically that perturbing the position and the size of the NDs has little effect on the cavity properties.