Near-field optical microscopy with a nanodiamond-based single photon tip

TL;DR

This paper presents a room-temperature, stable single-photon scanning probe using a nanodiamond with a nitrogen-vacancy center, enabling near-field optical imaging of nanostructures for quantum nanoscience applications.

Contribution

It introduces a novel nanodiamond-based single-photon tip for near-field microscopy, combining stability and room-temperature operation.

Findings

Achieved stable, blinking-free single-photon emission at room temperature.

Successfully imaged metallic nanostructures in the near-field.

Demonstrated potential for quantum plasmonics and nanoscience applications.

Abstract

We introduce a point-like scanning single-photon source that operates at room temperature and offers an exceptional photostability (no blinking, no bleaching). This is obtained by grafting in a controlled way a diamond nanocrystal (size around 20 nm) with single nitrogen-vacancy color-center occupancy at the apex of an optical probe. As an application, we image metallic nanostructures in the near-field, thereby achieving a near-field scanning single-photon microscopy working at room temperature on the long term. Our work may be of importance to various emerging fields of nanoscience where an accurate positioning of a quantum emitter is required such as for example quantum plasmonics.