The artificial creation of shallow nitrogen‐vacancy (NV) centres in diamond with 25 nm lateral resolution is performed by collimated implantation of low‐energy nitrogen ions. The electron spin associated to this defect is the most promising qubit for a scalable quantum computer working at room temperature. Individual optical addressing of two single centres separated by only 16 nm is demonstrated with stimulated emission depletion (STED) microscopy.

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Articles you may be interested inSelf-sensing cantilevers with integrated conductive coaxial tips for high-resolution electrical scanning probe metrology All-diamond cantilever probes for scanning probe microscopy applications realized by a proximity lithography process Rev. Sci. Instrum. 77, 043708 (2006); Scanning proximity probes are uniquely powerful tools for analysis, manipulation, and bottom-up synthesis. A massively parallel cantilever-probe platform is demonstrated. 128 self-sensing and self-actuated proximal probes are discussed. Readout based on piezoresistive sensors and bending control based on bimorph dc/ac actuations are described in detail.

Scanning probe-based methods for surface modification and lithography are an emerging method of producing sub 20-nm features for nanoelectronic applications. In this study, we have demonstrated the nanoscale lithography based on patterning of 10 to 50-nm-thick calix[4]arene by electric-field-induced electrostatic scanning probe lithography. The features size control is obtained using electrostatic interactions and depends on the applied bias and speed of the AFM tip. The width of the obtained lines and dots varies from 10 to 60 nm depending on tip-sharpness, tip-substrate separation and tip-bias voltage.

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This work presents a simple automatic VIS-IR laser refractometer, based on a critical-angle method. Its experimental error is smaller than 6×10−4 within the range of 1.32–1.47. Such precision of the refractometer is sufficient for the most industrial applications, for environmental protection, structural analysis, investigation of new materials, etc. Spectral refractive index measurements of different liquids are led and the calculated dispersion coefficients are reported.

High-speed atomic force microscopy (AFM) is actually a functional tool for the studies of dynamical phenomena of biological and chemical objects on a sub-second timescale. In order to increase the imaging speed, all dynamic components of AFM have to be optimized. This paper presents advancement in the development of a novel x–y scanner for high-speed non-contact AFM. We have developed a quasi-monolithic integration of a silicon parallel kinematic mechanism with piezoelectric actuators. Decoupling of motion in x–y directions is realized due to novel Ω-shaped flexures. For the control of the stage motion, we employed piezoresistive sensors integrated into silicon L-shaped guidance features. Due to the use of a push–pull actuation principle, we obtained a large scanning frequency and a 6 × 6 µm2 scanning area. The resonance frequency of the stage is about 26 kHz. The silicon stage facilitates fast quantitative imaging with high lateral resolution.