Initialization and measurement of nitrogen-vacancy centers in diamond with plasmonic Purcell enhancement

Nitrogen-Vacancy (NV) color centers in diamond have emerged as promising quantum solid-state systems, with applications ranging from quantum information processing to magnetic sensing. One of the most useful properties of NVs is the ability to read their ground-state spin projection optically at room temperature. In this work we consider the effect of the Purcell enhancement on the ability to initialize the NV state and analyze the effect to imperfect initialization on the measurement SNR. We demonstrate that even with feasible initial conditions the combined increase in spontaneous emission (through Purcell enhancement) and in optical excitation could significantly increase the readout SNR.