Efficiency of Cathodoluminescence Emission by Nitrogen-Vacancy Color Centers in Nanodiamonds

Huiliang Zhang; David R Glenn; Richard Schalek; Jeff W Lichtman; Ronald L Walsworth

doi:10.1002/smll.201700543

Efficiency of Cathodoluminescence Emission by Nitrogen-Vacancy Color Centers in Nanodiamonds

Small. 2017 Jun;13(22). doi: 10.1002/smll.201700543. Epub 2017 Apr 18.

Authors

Huiliang Zhang¹, David R Glenn¹, Richard Schalek^{2

3}, Jeff W Lichtman^{2

3}, Ronald L Walsworth^{1

3

4}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Physics, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, 02138, USA.
² Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, 02138, USA.
³ Center for Brain Science, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, 02138, USA.
⁴ Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, Cambridge, MA, 02138, USA.

PMID: 28417543
DOI: 10.1002/smll.201700543

Abstract

Correlated electron microscopy and cathodoluminescence (CL) imaging using functionalized nanoparticles is a promising nanoscale probe of biological structure and function. Nanodiamonds (NDs) that contain CL-emitting color centers are particularly well suited for such applications. The intensity of CL emission from NDs is determined by a combination of factors, including particle size, density of color centers, efficiency of energy deposition by electrons passing through the particle, and conversion efficiency from deposited energy to CL emission. This paper reports experiments and numerical simulations that investigate the relative importance of each of these factors in determining CL emission intensity from NDs containing nitrogen-vacancy (NV) color centers. In particular, it is found that CL can be detected from NV-doped NDs with dimensions as small as ≈40 nm, although CL emission decreases significantly for smaller NDs.

Keywords: cathodoluminescence; correlative microscopy; nanodiamond; nitrogen-vacancy; scanning electron microscopy.

Publication types

Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S.