The charge dynamics of silicon-vacancy (SiV) centers have been investigated for the first time in high-pressure high-temperature nanodiamonds (NDs) with varying concentrations of substitutional nitrogen (${\mathrm{N}}_{\mathrm{S}}$). We demonstrate a controlled sixfold enhancement of ${\mathrm{SiV}}^{-}$ photoluminescence (PL) under dual-color excitation, consisting of strong red (∼660 nm) illumination combined with weak green (∼530 nm) excitation. The measured dependencies of ${\mathrm{SiV}}^{-}$ PL lifetime and intensity on excitation wavelength, together with the enhancement dependence on ${\mathrm{N}}_{\mathrm{S}}$ concentration in the studied nanodiamonds, provide unambiguous evidence of the involvement of donor nitrogen in ${\mathrm{SiV}}^{-}$ emission dynamics. Saturation curves and second-order PL intensity correlation measurements further indicate suppression of the population of the optically inactive ${\mathrm{SiV}}^{2-}$ state upon the addition of green excitation. These results unlock a practical pathway toward engineering optically controlled and scalable quantum emitters based on SiV-luminescent diamond nanoparticles.

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• Lifetimes & widths
• Nanophotonics
• Optical transient phenomena
• Photon statistics
• Photonics
• Quantum optics
• Quantum optics with artificial atoms
• Single photon sources