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arXiv · 1710.01680

Super-resolution microscopy of single rare-earth emitters

R. Kolesov·S. Lasse·C. Rothfuchs·A. D. Wieck·K. Xia·T. Kornher·J. Wrachtrup
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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.

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R. Kolesov, S. Lasse, C. Rothfuchs, A. D. Wieck, K. Xia, T. Kornher, J. Wrachtrup. 2017-10-04. Super-resolution microscopy of single rare-earth emitters. https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevlett.120.033903

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