We demonstrate the combination of a hemispherical solid immersion lens with a micro-photoluminescence setup. Two advantages introduced by the SIL, an improved resolution of 0.4 times the wavelength in vacuum and a 5 times enhancement of the collection efficiency, make it an ideal system for spatially resolved spectroscopy applications. The influence of the air gap between the SIL and the sample surface is investigated in detail. We confirm the tolerance of the set--up to an air gap of several micrometers. Such a system is proven to be ideal system in the studies of exciton transport and polarization dependent single quantum dot spectroscopy.
In 2011, super-resolution imaging by microsphere superlens was emerged as a simple yet effective method to overcome the diffraction limit that limits the resolution of conventional lenses. Significant progress has since been made. Key advances including the development of scanning superlens system, metamaterial solid immersion lens (mSIL), super-resolution physics and bio-superlens will be discussed. Challenges and solutions are then discussed.
School of Computer Science and Engineering, Bangor University（班戈大学计算机科学与工程学院）；Research Centre for Intelligent Healthcare, Coventry University（考文垂大学智能医疗研究中心）
In this Letter we present a Fresnel lens fabricated on the end of an optical fiber. The lens is fabricated using nanoimprint lithography of a functional high refractive index material, which is suitable for mass production. The main advantage of the presented Fresnel lens compared to a conventional fiber lens is its high refractive index (n=1.69), which enables efficient light focusing even inside other media such as water or adhesive. Measurement of the lens performance in an immersion liquid (n=1.51) shows a near diffraction limited focal spot of 810 nm in diameter at the 1/e2 intensity leve…
Efficiently collecting light emitted or scattered from nanoscale systems, which can be embedded in a high-index medium, is a challenge for fundamental spectroscopic studies and commercial applications of quantum dots, color centers, single molecules, plasmonic antennas, etc. Solid immersion lenses offer a powerful solution to increase the numerical aperture of the optical system, while being robust and compatible with cryogenic temperatures. However, they suffer from strong chromatic aberrations, limiting their applications to narrow-band excitation and emission spectral windows. Here, we desi…
We present simulations of an efficient high numerical aperture solid immersion metalens concept for fluorescence microscopy. The technique exploits the preferential emission of interfacial dipoles into a high refractive index substrate combined with a metalens and a conventional tube lens for imaging them. We have thus simulated dipole emission and an all-dielectric metasurface on opposite sides of a high refractive index substrate. Our calculations predict dipole collection efficiencies of up to 87 percent. The simulated beam propagation through the imaging system shows excellent performance …
Among the wide-bandgap compound semiconductors, gallium nitride is the most widely available material due to its prevalence in the solid state lighting and high-speed/high-power electronics industries. It is now known that GaN is one of only a handful of materials to host color centers that emit quantum light at room temperature. In this paper, we report on a bright color center in a semi-polar gallium nitride substrate, emitting at room temperature in the near-infrared. We show that a hemispherical solid immersion lens, near index matched to the semiconductor, can be used to enhance the photo…
Solid-state quantum emitters have emerged as robust single-photon sources and addressable spins: key components in rapidly developing quantum technologies for broadband magnetometry, biological sensing, and quantum information science. Performance in these applications, be it magnetometer sensitivity or quantum key generation rate, is limited by the number of photons detected. However, efficient collection of a quantum emitter's photoluminescence (PL) is challenging as its atomic scale necessitates diffraction-limited imaging with nanometer-precision alignment, oftentimes at cryogenic temperat…
Additive solid immersion lenses for enhanced collection efficiency of shallow NV centers by pulsed laser deposition and structurization of high-k amorphous oxides
Leipzig University（莱比锡大学）；Felix Bloch Institute, Leipzig University（莱比锡大学费利克斯·布洛赫研究所）；SaxonQ GmbH（萨克森量子有限公司）；Department of Prosthetic Dentistry and Dental Material Science, Leipzig University（莱比锡大学假肢牙科与牙科材料科学系）
Broadband super-resolution imaging is important in optical field. To achieve super-resolution imaging, various lenses from superlens to solid immersion lens have been designed and fabricated in recent years. However, the imaging is unsatisfactory due to low work efficiency and narrow band. In this work, we propose a solid immersion square Maxwell's fish-eye lens which realizes broadband (7-16GHz) achromatic super-resolution imaging with full width at half maximum around 0.2 wavelength based on transformation optics at microwave frequencies. In addition, a super-resolution information transmiss…
We report on pulsed-laser induced generation of nitrogen-vacancy (NV) centers in diamond facilitated by a solid-immersion lens (SIL). The SIL enables laser writing at energies as low as 5.8 nJ per pulse and allows vacancies to be formed close to a diamond surface without inducing surface graphitization. We operate in the previously unexplored regime where lattice vacancies are created following tunneling breakdown rather than multiphoton ionization. We present three samples in which NV-center arrays were laser-written at distances between ~1 $μ$m and 40 $μ$m from a diamond surface, all present…
Future quantum technology relies crucially on building quantum networks with high fidelity. To achieve this challenging goal, it is of utmost importance to connect single quantum systems in a way such that their emitted single-photons overlap with the highest possible degree of coherence. This requires perfect mode overlap of the emitted light of different emitters, which necessitates the use of single mode fibers. Here we present an advanced manufacturing approach to accomplish this task: we combine 3D printed complex micro-optics such as hemispherical and Weierstrass solid immersion lenses a…
