Super-resolution microscopy of single rare-earth emitters

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates super-resolution imaging of single rare-earth emitters like cerium in YAG crystals and H3 centers in diamond using STED microscopy, achieving resolutions of approximately 80nm and 60nm respectively.

Contribution

It introduces a method for super-resolution imaging of rare-earth emitters with detailed analysis of resolution limitations due to excited state absorption and defect interactions.

Findings

Achieved ~80nm resolution for cerium in YAG

Achieved ~60nm resolution for H3 centers in diamond

Resolution improvement is slower than inverse square-root of beam intensity

Abstract

We demonstrate super-resolution imaging of single rare-earth emitting centers, namely, trivalent cerium, in yttrium aluminum garnet (YAG) crystals by means of stimulated emission depletion (STED) microscopy. The achieved all-optical resolution is $\approx$ 80nm. Similar results were obtained on H3 color centers in diamond with resolution of $\approx$ 60nm. In both cases, STED resolution is improving slower than the inverse square-root of the depletion beam intensity. This is caused by excited state absorption (ESA) and interaction of the emitter with non-fluorescing crystal defects in its near surrounding.