Scanning Confocal Optical Microscopy and Magnetic Resonance on Single Defect Centers

Gruber, Achim D.; Dräbenstedt, Alexander; Tietz, C.; Fleury, L.; Wrachtrup, Joerg; Borczyskowski, C. von

doi:10.1126/science.276.5321.2012

Cited by 1,563 publications

(1,412 citation statements)

References 20 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

1,374

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…Sensors based on nitrogen-vacancy (NV) centres in diamond are promising magnetometers because of their atomic size. This allows placement of the sensor with few nanometre proximity to the sample while retaining superior volume-to-sensitivity scaling, room temperature operation and optical readout [6][7][8] .…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Magnetic spin imaging under ambient conditions with sub-cellular resolution

Steinert¹,

Ziem²,

et al. 2013

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The detection of small numbers of magnetic spins is a significant challenge in the life, physical and chemical sciences, especially when room temperature operation is required. Here we show that a proximal nitrogen-vacancy spin ensemble serves as a high precision sensing and imaging array. Monitoring its longitudinal relaxation enables sensing of freely diffusing, unperturbed magnetic ions and molecules in a microfluidic device without applying external magnetic fields. Multiplexed charge-coupled device acquisition and an optimized detection scheme permits direct spin noise imaging of magnetically labelled cellular structures under ambient conditions. Within 20 s we achieve spatial resolutions below 500 nm and experimental sensitivities down to 1,000 statistically polarized spins, of which only 32 ions contribute to a net magnetization. The results mark a major step towards versatile subcellular magnetic imaging and real-time spin sensing under physiological conditions providing a minimally invasive tool to monitor ion channels or haemoglobin trafficking inside live cells.

show abstract

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Magnetic spin imaging under ambient conditions with sub-cellular resolution

Steinert¹,

Ziem²,

et al. 2013

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…The measured current can be understood by considering the extra electron-hole pairs in the graphene, which are generated with a time rate that corresponds to the lifetime of the NV centres modified by the NRET. To verify that the current observed is caused by the non-radiative loss channel of the NV centres, we use the electron spin resonance (ESR) of the NV centres to modify the rate of NRET 32 . This change in rate induces a spin-dependent variation of the current in graphene.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Ultrafast electronic readout of diamond nitrogen–vacancy centres coupled to graphene

et al. 2014

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Non-radiative transfer processes are often regarded as loss channels for an optical emitter 1 because they are inherently difficult to access experimentally. Recently, it has been shown that emitters, such as fluorophores and nitrogen-vacancy centres in diamond, can exhibit a strong non-radiative energy transfer to graphene [2][3][4][5][6] . So far, the energy of the transferred electronic excitations has been considered to be lost within the electron bath of the graphene. Here we demonstrate that the transferred excitations can be read out by detecting corresponding currents with a picosecond time resolution 7,8 . We detect electronically the spin of nitrogen-vacancy centres in diamond and control the non-radiative transfer to graphene by electron spin resonance. Our results open the avenue for incorporating nitrogen-vacancy centres into ultrafast electronic circuits and for harvesting non-radiative transfer processes electronically.With the advancement of nanoscale photonics research it has become increasingly desirable to combine optical systems with electric circuits to create optoelectronic devices that can be miniaturized and integrated into chips. To this end, we can take advantage of the excellent optical and electronic properties of graphene 9 , which include good photodetection capabilities 8,10-15 , efficient energy absorption 3 and strong light-matter interactions at the nanoscale 16,17 . In particular, it has been reported recently that, because of graphene's specific properties, the near-field interaction between light emitters and graphene is greatly enhanced as compared to that of conventional metals 2-6 . This interaction manifests itself, for example, in a 100-fold enhancement of the excited-state decay rate of emitters placed 5 nm away from graphene as compared to the spontaneous emission of the emitter. The physical mechanism behind the interaction is the creation of an electron-hole pair in graphene through non-radiative energy transfer (NRET) from the emitter dipole 18 . The NRET process to graphene has been demonstrated to have an efficiency of nearly 100% when the emitter is less than 10 nm away from the graphene sheet 3 , which makes graphene an ideal material to detect electronically the optical properties of nearby emitters 6 . NRET has been studied extensively for fundamental as well as for biosensing applications. However, a fast energy transfer has not yet been observed because of quenching of the optical signal for short graphene-emitter distances. In contrast, an electronic readout of the NRET enables studies on fast energy processes. Moreover, if the transferred energy can be collected, as we show in this work, new ways for energy harvesting and biosensing can be implemented.We take advantage of the highly efficient NRET process to read out electronically, for the first time, the optical excitation of nitrogen-vacancy (NV) centres in diamond nanocrystals. To this end, we used graphene for the extraction of the excited-state energy of NV centres and converted it into a measurable ...

show abstract

“…S ingle-photon emission has been observed from a variety of quantum emitters including semiconductor quantum dots [1][2][3][4] , molecules [5][6][7][8] , atoms 9 , ions 10 and colour centres in diamond [11][12][13] . Semiconductor quantum dots, in particular from III/V materials, prove to be especially fascinating tools for electrically driven single-photon generation 14 .…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Electrically driven photon antibunching from a single molecule at room temperature

et al. 2012

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

single-photon emitters have been considered for applications in quantum information processing, quantum cryptography and metrology. For the sake of integration and to provide an electron photon interface, it is of great interest to stimulate single-photon emission by electrical excitation as demonstrated for quantum dots. Because of low exciton binding energies, it has so far not been possible to detect sub-Poissonian photon statistics of electrically driven quantum dots at room temperature. However, organic molecules possess exciton binding energies on the order of 1 eV, thereby facilitating the development of an electrically driven single-photon source at room temperature in a solid-state matrix. Here we demonstrate electroluminescence of single, electrically driven molecules at room temperature. By careful choice of the molecular emitter, as well as fabrication of a specially designed organic lightemitting diode structure, we were able to achieve stable single-molecule emission and detect sub-Poissonian photon statistics.

show abstract

Scanning Confocal Optical Microscopy and Magnetic Resonance on Single Defect Centers

Cited by 1,563 publications

References 20 publications

Magnetic spin imaging under ambient conditions with sub-cellular resolution

Magnetic spin imaging under ambient conditions with sub-cellular resolution

Ultrafast electronic readout of diamond nitrogen–vacancy centres coupled to graphene

Electrically driven photon antibunching from a single molecule at room temperature

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About