We realize a single particle microscope by using deterministically extracted laser cooled 40Ca+ ions from a Paul trap as probe particles for transmission imaging. We demonstrate focusing of the ions with a resolution of 5.8±1.0nm and a minimum two-sample deviation of the beam position of 1.5nm in the focal plane. The deterministic source, even when used in combination with an imperfect detector, gives rise to much higher signal to noise ratios as compared with conventional Poissonian sources. Gating of the detector signal by the extraction event suppresses dark counts by 6 orders of magnitude. We implement a Bayes experimental design approach to microscopy in order to maximize the gain in spatial information. We demonstrate this method by determining the position of a 1μm circular hole structure to an accuracy of 2.7nm using only 579 probe particles.
@article{arxiv.1512.00347,
title = {Microscopy with a Deterministic Single Ion Source},
author = {Georg Jacob and Karin Groot-Berning and Sebastian Wolf and Stefan Ulm and Luc Couturier and Samuel T. Dawkins and Ulrich G. Poschinger and Ferdinand Schmidt-Kaler and Kilian Singer},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1512.00347},
year = {2016}
}