Improving the electron spin properties of nitrogen-vacancy centres in nanodiamonds by near-field etching.

The nitrogen-vacancy (NV) centre in diamond is a promising candidate for quantum computing applications and magnetic sensing applications, because it is an atomic-scale defect with stable coherence time (T2) and reliable accessibility at room temperature. We demonstrated a method for improving the NV spin properties (the full width half maximum (FWHM) value of the magnetic resonance spectrum and T2) through a near-field (NF) etching method under ambient conditions. The NF etching method, based on a He-Cd ultraviolet laser (325 nm), which is longer than the absorption edge of the oxygen molecule, enabled selective removal of defects on the nanodiamond surface. We observed a decrease in the FWHM value close to 15% and an increase in T2 close to 25%. Since our technique can be easily reproduced, a wide range of NV centre applications could be improved, especially magnetic sensing applications. Our results are especially attractive, because they have been obtained under ambient conditions and only require a light source with wavelength slightly above the O2 absorption edge.

Optical dynamics of energy-transfer from a CdZnO quantum well to a proximal Ag nanostructure.

We studied photoluminescence (PL) and energy-transfer dynamics in a hybrid structure comprising a Cd(0.08)Zn(0.92)O quantum well (QW) and an Ag nanostructure. The observed PL quenching was dependent on the electronic states in the QW. Quenching occurred at low temperature where excited carriers recombined radiatively because of excitonic localization, which disappeared with increasing temperature due to delocalization of excitons. Furthermore, nanostructured Ag surfaces produced local surface plasmon (LSP) absorption that was resonant with the PL peak energy of the QW emission. These results indicate that the recombination energy of excitons transfers nonradiatively to induce LSP excitation, which was revealed using time-resolved PL measurements.

Size control of sol-gel-synthesized ZnO quantum dots using photo-induced desorption.

We developed a sol-gel method using photo-induced desorption for size-controlled ZnO quantum dots (QDs). This method successfully controlled the size and size variance of ZnO QDs, and size fluctuations decreased from 23% to 18% depending on the illuminated light intensity. The sol-gel synthesis effectively reduced the number of defect levels that originated from oxygen defects.

Distinguishing between ultrafast optical harmonic generation and multi-photon-induced luminescence from ZnO thin films by frequency-resolved interferometric autocorrelation microscopy.

The nonlinear optical properties of thin ZnO film are studied using interferometric autocorrelation (IFRAC) microscopy. Ultrafast, below-bandgap excitation with 6-fs laser pulses at 800 nm focused to a spot size of 1 µm results in two emission bands in the blue and blue-green spectral region with distinctly different coherence properties. We show that an analysis of the wavelength-dependence of the interference fringes in the IFRAC signal allows for an unambiguous assignment of these bands as coherent second harmonic emission and incoherent, multiphoton-induced photoluminescence, respectively. More generally our analysis shows that IFRAC allows for a complete characterization of the coherence properties of the nonlinear optical emission from nanostructures in a single-beam experiment. Since this technique combines a very high temporal and spatial resolution we anticipate broad applications in nonlinear nano-optics.

Fabrication of vertically aligned ultrafine ZnO nanorods using metal-organic vapor phase epitaxy with a two-temperature growth method.

We report the fabrication of vertically aligned ultrafine ZnO nanorods using metal-organic vapor phase epitaxy and applying a two-temperature growth method. First, thick nanorods were grown vertically on the substrate at a lower temperature. Then, ultrafine ZnO nanorods with an average diameter of 17.7 nm were grown from the tips of the thick nanorods at a higher temperature. The direction of the ultrafine ZnO nanorods followed that of the preformed vertically aligned thick nanorods. Electron microscopy revealed that the ultrafine nanorods were single crystals and the growth direction was along the c axis. Excellent photoluminescence characteristics of the nanorods were confirmed.

Generating small-scale structures from large-scale ones via optical near-field interactions.

Optical near-fields, which appear in the vicinity of structures when irradiated with light, exhibit a hierarchical nature, meaning that the degree of localization of optical near-fields at a given point is related to the scale of the structure involved in this process. Therefore, if we could make optically induced fabrication processes selectively localized in the near-field region, we could generate a smaller-scale structure even from a larger-scale one via optical near-field interactions. We demonstrate the theoretical basis of this with an angular spectrum analysis of optical near-fields. We also experimentally demonstrate such principles by using ZnO nanoneedles fabricated through metal-organic vapor phase epitaxy (MOVPE) followed by a photo-induced MOVPE procedure where smaller-scale generated structures were clearly observed with the help of light irradiation. We also observed that the generated fine structures followed a power-law distribution, indicating that fractal structures emerged via optical near-field interactions.

High-density speed optical near-field recording reading with a pyramidal silicon probe on a contact slider.

We demonstrate high-density-speed phase-change recording-reading by use of a pyramidal silicon structure. The contact slider, which has a pyramidal silicon probe array with height dispersion of less than 10 nm, is fabricated by use of a silicon-on-insulator wafer. By illumination with a laser beam (lambda = 830 nm) of one element of the probe array, we find the shortest phase-change mark length and the carrier-to-noise ratio to be 110 nm and 10 dB, respectively, corresponding to a data transmission rate of 2.0 MHz. This rate can be increased to 200 MHz by use of all elements of the probe array.

Silicon planar-apertured probe array for high-density near-field optical storage.

We propose a novel, to our knowledge, silicon planar-apertured probe array as an optical head for high-density near-field optical storage. In comparison with a conventional fiber probe employed for near-field optical storage the apertured probe array has a higher readout data-transmission rate and better mechanical durability. A probe array with an aperture size of 100 nm was fabricated by use of photolithography and wet etching of a silicon wafer. Subwavelength-readout capability was demonstrated by use of one aperture of the probe array. Furthermore, we achieved a 16 times increase in the light-transmission efficiency of the probe array by installing glass-sphere microlenses on each aperture. The increase was confirmed by measurement of the near-field optical intensity.