title: Bright cathodoluminescent thin films for scanning nano-optical excitation and imaging.
abstract: Demand for visualizing nanoscale dynamics in biological and advanced materials continues to drive the development of subdiffraction optical probes. While many strategies employ scanning tips for this purpose, we instead exploit a focused electron beam to create scannable nanoscale optical excitations in an epitaxially grown thin-film of cerium-doped yttrium aluminum perovskite, whose cathodoluminescence response is bright, robust, and spatially resolved to 18 nm. We also demonstrate lithographic patterning of the film's luminescence at the nanoscale. We anticipate that converting these films into free-standing membranes will yield a powerful near-field optical microscopy without the complication of mechanical scanning.
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, ‡Department of Physics, and §Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of California , Berkeley, California 94720, United States.
authors.forename: David M
authors.initials: DM
authors.lastname: Kaz
authors.forename: Connor G
authors.initials: CG
authors.lastname: Bischak
authors.forename: Craig L
authors.initials: CL
authors.lastname: Hetherington
authors.forename: Hannah H
authors.initials: HH
authors.lastname: Howard
authors.forename: Xavier
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Marti
authors.forename: James D
authors.initials: JD
authors.lastname: Clarkson
authors.forename: Carolina
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Adamo
authors.forename: Darrell G
authors.initials: DG
authors.lastname: Schlom
authors.forename: Ramamoorthy
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Ramesh
authors.forename: Shaul
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Aloni
authors.forename: D Frank
authors.initials: DF
authors.lastname: Ogletree
authors.forename: Naomi S
authors.initials: NS
authors.lastname: Ginsberg
mesh_terms: D000535:Aluminum / Q000737:chemistry; D002563:Cerium / Q000737:chemistry; D004566:Electrodes; D004583:Electrons; D004867:Equipment Design; D007834:Lasers; D049449:Luminescence; D008422:Materials Testing; D009010:Monte Carlo Method; D053758:Nanoparticles / Q000737:chemistry; D049329:Nanostructures / Q000737:chemistry; D036103:Nanotechnology / Q000379:methods; D055095:Optics and Photonics / Q000379:methods*; D013499:Surface Properties
chemical_list: D002563:Cerium; D000535:Aluminum