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Register a new userUltrasensitive optical magnetometry at the microscale
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Recent advances in optical magnetometry have achieved record sensitivity at both macro- and nano-scale. Combined with high bandwidth and non-cryogenic operation, this has enabled many applications. By comparison, microscale optical magnetometers have been constrained to sensitivities five orders-of-magnitude worse than the state-of-the-art. Here, we report an ambient optical micro-magnetometer operating for the first time in the picoTesla range, a more than three order-of-magnitude advance on previous results. Unlike other ultrasensitive optical magnetometers, the device operates at earth field, achieves tens of MHz bandwidth, and is integrated and fiber coupled. Combined with 60 micrometer spatial resolution and microWatt optical power requirements, these unique capabilities open up a broad range of applications including cryogen-free and microfluidic magnetic resonance imaging, and electromagnetic interference-free investigation of spin physics in condensed matter systems such as semiconductors and ultracold atom clouds
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Scattering-type scanning near-field microscopy (s-SNOM) at terahertz (THz) frequencies could become a highly valuable tool for studying a variety of phenomena of both fundamental and applied interest, including mobile carrier excitations or phase transitions in 2D materials or exotic conductors. Applications, however, are strongly challenged by the limited signal to noise ratio. One major reason is that standard atomic force microscope (AFM) tips, which have made s-SNOM a highly practical and rapidly emerging tool, provide weak scattering efficiencies at THz frequencies. Here we report a combined experimental and theoretical study of commercial and custom-made AFM tips of different apex diameter and length, in order to understand signal formation in THz s-SNOM and to provide insights for tip optimization. Contrary to common beliefs, we find that AFM tips with large (micrometer-scale) apex diameter can enhance s-SNOM signals by more than one order of magnitude, while still offering a spatial resolution of about 100 nm at a wavelength of 119 micron. On the other hand, exploiting the increase of s-SNOM signals with tip length, we succeeded in sub-15 nm resolved THz imaging employing a tungsten tip with 6 nm apex radius. We explain our findings and provide novel insights into s-SNOM via rigorous numerical modeling of the near-field scattering process. Our findings will be of critical importance for pushing THz nanoscopy to its ultimate limits regarding sensitivity and spatial resolution.
We predict and experimentally observe three-dimensional microscale nonparaxial optical bottle beams based on the generation of a caustic surface under revolution. Such bottle beams exhibit high contrast between the surrounding surface and the effectively void interior. Via caustic engineering we can precisely control the functional form of the high intensity surface to achieve microscale bottle beams with longitudinal and transverse dimensions of the same order of magnitude. Although, in general, the phase profile at the input plane can be computed numerically, we find closed form expressions for bottle beams with various type of surfaces both in real and in the Fourier space.
Scanning diamond magnetometers based on the optically detected magnetic resonance of the nitrogen-vacancy centre offer very high sensitivity and non-invasive imaging capabilities when the stray fields emanating from ultrathin magnetic materials are sufficiently low (< 10 mT). Beyond this low-field regime, the optical signal quenches and a quantitative measurement is challenging. While the field-dependent NV photoluminescence can still provide qualitative information on magnetic morphology, this operation regime remains unexplored particularly for surface magnetisation larger than $sim$ 3 mA. Here, we introduce a multi-angle reconstruction technique (MARe) that captures the full nanoscale domain morphology in all magnetic-field regimes leading to NV photoluminescence quench. To demonstrate this, we use [Ir/Co/Pt]$_{14}$ multilayer films with surface magnetisation an order of magnitude larger than previous reports. Our approach brings non-invasive nanoscale magnetic field imaging capability to the study of a wider pool of magnetic materials and phenomena.
Electronic skin, a class of wearable electronic sensors that mimic the functionalities of human skin, has made remarkable success in applications including health monitoring, human-machine interaction and electronic-biological interfaces. While electronic skin continues to achieve higher sensitivity and faster response, its ultimate performance is fundamentally limited by the nature of low-frequency AC currents in electronic circuitries. Here we demonstrate highly sensitive optical skin (O-skin) in which the primary sensory elements are optically driven. The simple construction of the sensors is achieved by embedding glass micro/nanofibers (MNFs) in thin layers of polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS). Enabled by the highly sensitive power-leakage response of the guided modes from the MNF upon external stimuli, our optical sensors show ultrahigh sensitivity (1870/kPa), low detection limit (7 mPa) and fast response (10 microseconds) for pressure sensing, significantly exceeding the performance metrics of state-of-the-art electronic skins. Electromagnetic interference (EMI)-free detection of high-frequency vibrations, wrist pulse and human voice are realized. Moreover, a five-sensor optical data glove and a 2x2-MNF tactile sensor are demonstrated. Our results pave the way toward wearable optical devices ranging from ultrasensitive flexible sensors to optical skins.
Optical nanoantennas, i.e., elements transforming localized light or waveguide modes into freely propagating fields and vice versa, are vital components for modern nanophotonics. Optical antennas have been demonstrated to cause the Dicke superradiance effect, i.e., collective spontaneous emission of quantum sources. However, the impact of coherent excitation on the antenna performance, such as directivity, efficiency, and Purcell effect, remains mostly unexplored. Herein, using full-wave numerical simulations backed by a quantum model, we unveil that coherent excitation allows controlling antenna multipoles, on-demand excitation of nonradiative states, enhanced directivity and improves antenna radiation efficiency. This collective excitation corresponds to the states with nonzero dipole moment in the quantum picture, where the quantum phase is well defined. The results of this work bring another degree of freedom - the collective phase of an ensemble of quantum emitters - to control optical nanoantennas and, as such, pave the way to the use of collective excitations for nanophotonic devices with superb performance. To make the discussion independent of the frequency range, we consider the all-dielectric design and use dimensionless units.
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