Fabrication of single optical centres in diamond—a review

Colour centres in diamond are rapidly becoming one of the leading platforms for solid-state quantum information processing applications. This is due in large part to the remarkable properties of the nitrogen-vacancy colour centre. From initial demonstrations of room-temperature single photon generation and spin single spin readout and quantum control, diamond nanocrystals are also finding application in magnetometry and biosensing. This review discusses the state of the art in the creation of isolated and small ensembles of optically active diamond defect centres, including nitrogen and nickel-related centres.