We introduce a point-like scanning single-photon source that operates at room temperature and offers an exceptional photostability (no blinking, no bleaching). This is obtained by grafting in a controlled way a diamond nanocrystal (size around 20 nm) with single nitrogen-vacancy color-center occupancy at the apex of an optical probe. As an application, we image metallic nanostructures in the near-field, thereby achieving a near-field scanning single-photon microscopy working at room temperature on the long term. Our work may be of importance to various emerging fields of nanoscience where an accurate positioning of a quantum emitter is required such as for example quantum plasmonics.
@article{arxiv.0909.1457,
title = {Near-field optical microscopy with a nanodiamond-based single photon tip},
author = {A. Cuche and A. Drezet and Y. Sonnefraud and O. Faklaris and F. Treussart and J. -F. Roch and S. Huant},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:0909.1457},
year = {2009}
}