title: Near-field microscopy with a scanning nitrogen-vacancy color center in a diamond nanocrystal: A brief review.
abstract: We review our recent developments of near-field scanning optical microscopy (NSOM) that uses an active tip made of a single fluorescent nanodiamond (ND) grafted onto the apex of a substrate fiber tip. The ND hosting a limited number of nitrogen-vacancy (NV) color centers, such a tip is a scanning quantum source of light. The method for preparing the ND-based tips and their basic properties are summarized. Then we discuss theoretically the concept of spatial resolution that is achievable in this special NSOM configuration and find it to be only limited by the scan height over the imaged system, in contrast with the standard aperture-tip NSOM whose resolution depends critically on both the scan height and aperture diameter. Finally, we describe a scheme we have introduced recently for high-resolution imaging of nanoplasmonic structures with ND-based tips that is capable of approaching the ultimate resolution anticipated by theory.
authors.affiliation: Université Grenoble Alpes, Institut NEEL, F-38000 Grenoble, France; CNRS, Institut NEEL, F-38042 Grenoble, France.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Drezet
authors.affiliation: Université Grenoble Alpes, Institut NEEL, F-38000 Grenoble, France; CNRS, Institut NEEL, F-38042 Grenoble, France.
authors.forename: Y
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Sonnefraud
authors.affiliation: Université Grenoble Alpes, Institut NEEL, F-38000 Grenoble, France; CNRS, Institut NEEL, F-38042 Grenoble, France; CEMES CNRS UPR 8011, 29 rue J. Marvig, 31055 Toulouse Cedex 4, France.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Cuche
authors.affiliation: Université Grenoble Alpes, Institut NEEL, F-38000 Grenoble, France; CNRS, Institut NEEL, F-38042 Grenoble, France; Laboratoire de Photonique et de Nanostructures (CNRS-LPN), Route de Nozay, 91460 Marcoussis, France.
authors.forename: O
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Mollet
authors.affiliation: Université Grenoble Alpes, Institut NEEL, F-38000 Grenoble, France; CNRS, Institut NEEL, F-38042 Grenoble, France.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Berthel
authors.affiliation: Université Grenoble Alpes, Institut NEEL, F-38000 Grenoble, France; CNRS, Institut NEEL, F-38042 Grenoble, France.
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Huant
keywords: Near field microscopy; Near field optics; Nitrogen vacancy color center; Plasmonics; Quantum optics