In this study we lay the groundwork for a graphene-based fundamental ruler at the nanoscale. It relies on the efficient energy-transfer mechanism between single quantum emitters and low-doped graphene monolayers. Our experiments, conducted with dibenzoterrylene (DBT) molecules, allow going beyond ensemble analysis due to the emitter photo-stability and brightness. A quantitative characterization of the fluorescence decay-rate modification is presented and compared to a simple model, showing agreement with the d−4 dependence, a genuine manifestation of a dipole interacting with a 2D material. With DBT molecules, we can estimate a potential uncertainty in position measurements as low as 5nm in the range below 30nm.
@article{arxiv.1407.6951,
title = {Single-molecule study for a graphene-based nano-position sensor},
author = {G. Mazzamuto and A. Tabani and S. Pazzagli and S. Rizvi and A. Reserbat-Plantey and K. Schädler and G. Navickaité and L. Gaudreau and F. S. Cataliotti and F. Koppens and C. Toninelli},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1407.6951},
year = {2015}
}