Nanoscale resolved mapping of the dipole emission of hBN color centers with a scattering‐type scanning near‐field optical microscope
Color centers in hexagonal boron nitride (hBN) are promising candidates as quantum light sources for future technologies. In this work, we utilize a scattering-type near-field optical microscope (s-SNOM) to study the photoluminescence (PL) emission characteristics of such quantum emitters in metalorganic vapor phase epitaxy grown hBN. On the one hand, we demonstrate direct near-field optical excitation and emission through interaction with the nanofocus of the tip resulting in a subdiffraction limited tip-enhanced PL hotspot. On the other hand, we show that indirect excitation and emission via scattering from the tip significantly increases the recorded PL intensity. This demonstrates that the tip-assisted PL (TAPL) process efficiently guides the generated light to the detector. We apply the TAPL method to map the in-plane dipole orientations of the hBN color centers on the nanoscale. This work promotes the widely available s-SNOM approach to applications in the quantum domain including characterization and optical control.
Authors
- Piotr Tatarczak (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3715-9165)
- Iris Niehues (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7438-2679)
- A. Wysmołek (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8302-2189)
- Rainer Hillenbrand (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1904-4551)
- Aleksandra K. Dąbrowska (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4633-2054)
- Martin Schnell (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3514-3127)
- Korbinian J. Kaltenecker (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9831-6075)
- Daniel Wigger (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4190-8803)
- Julian Becker (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1725-4114)
- Johannes Binder (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0461-7716)
- Katarzyna Ludwiczak (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7279-4669)
- Philippe Roelli (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1582-2301)
- Robert Schmidt (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8856-3347)
- Annika Klein-Hitpass
Institutions
- Ikerbasque (ES)
- University of the Basque Country (ES)
- University of Münster (DE)
- Nanosystems Initiative Munich (DE)
- CIC nanoGUNE (ES)
- Attocube Systems (Germany) (DE)
- University of Warsaw (PL)
- Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München (DE)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Nanophotonics
- Published
- 2025-02-01
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1515/nanoph-2024-0554
- Citations
- 7
- Primary Topic
- Near-Field Optical Microscopy
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 4.72
Funders
- Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft
- Narodowym Centrum Nauki
- Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster
- European Regional Development Fund
- Agencia Estatal de Investigación