title: Near-field optical microscopy with a nanodiamond-based single-photon tip.
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.
authors.affiliation: Institut Néel, CNRS and Université Joseph Fourier, BP 166, 38042 Grenoble, France.
authors.forename: Aurélien
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Cuche
authors.forename: Aurélien
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Drezet
authors.forename: Yannick
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Sonnefraud
authors.forename: Orestis
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Faklaris
authors.forename: François
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Treussart
authors.forename: Jean-François
authors.initials: JF
authors.lastname: Roch
authors.forename: Serge
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Huant
mesh_terms: D017076:Computer-Aided Design; D018130:Diamond / Q000737:chemistry*; D004867:Equipment Design; D019544:Equipment Failure Analysis; D007089:Image Enhancement / Q000295:instrumentation*; D020527:Microscopy, Scanning Probe / Q000295:instrumentation*; D049329:Nanostructures / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000648:ultrastructure*; D010316:Particle Size; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D014159:Transducers
chemical_list: D018130:Diamond