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Journal of Experimental and Theoretical Physics Letters

Nanometer-resolution scanning optical microscope with resonance excitation of the fluorescence of the samples from a single-atom excited center

Sergey K. Sekatskii, Vladilen S Letokhov

Published Mar 1, 1996• 33 citations
Publisher

Abstract

A scanning optical microscope whose active element (the tip) consists of a crystal containing impurity ions or color centers, which are excited by laser radiation, is proposed. The excitation energy from a single impurity center located at the point of the tip is transferred to the fluorescence centers of the experimental sample by the mechanism of resonant dipole-dipole exchange. It is shown that this approach can give nanometer spatial resolution with high sensitivity, which in many cases is much higher than the sensitivity of the “standard” near-field fluorescence microscopy.

DOI
10.1134/1.567024

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A scanning optical microscope whose active element (the tip) consists of a crystal containing impurity ions or color centers, which are excited by laser radiation, is proposed. The excitation energy from a single impurity center located at the point of the tip is transferred to the fluorescence centers of the experimental sample by the mechanism of resonant dipole-dipole exchange. It is shown that this approach can give nanometer spatial resolution with high sensitivity, which in many cases is much higher than the sensitivity of the “standard” near-field fluorescence microscopy.
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We report on a scanning microscopy technique for atom-number-resolved imaging of excited-state atoms. A tightly focused laser beam leads to local autoionization and the resulting ions are counted electronically. Scanning the beam across the cloud builds up an image of the density distribution of excited atoms, with access to the full counting statistics at each spatial sampling point and an overall detection efficiency of 2121%21. We apply this technique to the measurement of a spatially inhomogeneous electric field with a spatial resolution of 50 $\ensuremath{\mu}$m and a sensitivity to electric-field gradients of 0.04 V cm${}^{\ensuremath{-}2}$.
Single terrylene molecules embedded in microscopic p-terphenyl crystals are identified with the technique of fluorescence excitation spectroscopy. By use of the architecture of a scanning-probe microscope at T = 1.4 K , a single molecule is scanned through an excitation laser beam while the fluorescence signal is recorded. In this manner we have mapped the intensity distribution in a one-dimensional optical standing wave, demonstrating the potential of a single molecule as a nanometric probe. We discuss future experiments aimed at combining the high spatial and spectral sensitivity of a single molecule.