The interaction of a single quantum emitter with its environment is a central
theme in quantum optics. When placed in highly confined optical fields, such as
those created in optical cavities or plasmonic structures, the optical
properties of the emitter can change drastically. In particular, photonic
crystal (PC) cavities show high quality factors combined with an extremely
small mode volume. Efficiently coupling a single quantum emitter to a PC cavity
is challenging because of the required positioning accuracy. Here, we
demonstrate deterministic coupling of single Nitrogen-Vacancy (NV) centers to
high-quality gallium phosphide PC cavities, by deterministically positioning
their 50 nm-sized host nanocrystals into the cavity mode maximum with
few-nanometer accuracy. The coupling results in a 25-fold enhancement of NV
center emission at the cavity wavelength. With this technique, the NV center
photoluminescence spectrum can be reshaped allowing for efficient generation of
coherent photons, providing new opportunities for quantum science.Comment: 13 pages, 4 figure