title: Local detection of nitrogen-vacancy centers in a nanodiamond monolayer.
abstract: Nitrogen-vacancy defect centers (NV) contained in nanodiamonds (NDs) are a promising candidate in quantum information processing and single photon sources due to the capability of controlling their assembly on various surfaces. However, their detection with traditional optical techniques becomes challenging when probing high NV densities at the nanometer scale. Here, we combine scanning probe techniques to characterize in a monolayer the structural and electronic properties of bucky-diamonds with sizes below 10 nm. We further observe by light-assisted Kelvin- and scanning tunneling spectroscopy a clear signature of negatively charged subsurface NV centers in NDs at the nanoscale where conventional techniques are limited.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics, University of Basel , Klingelbergstrasse 82, 4056 Basel, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Rémy
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Pawlak
authors.forename: Thilo
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Glatzel
authors.forename: Vincent
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Pichot
authors.forename: Loïc
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Schmidlin
authors.forename: Shigeki
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Kawai
authors.forename: Sweetlana
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Fremy
authors.forename: Denis
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Spitzer
authors.forename: Ernst
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Meyer
mesh_terms: D008027:Light; D058612:Nanodiamonds / Q000737:chemistry*; D009584:Nitrogen / Q000737:chemistry*; D055095:Optics and Photonics; D017785:Photons; D013499:Surface Properties
chemical_list: D058612:Nanodiamonds; D009584:Nitrogen