Recent efforts to define microscopic solid-immersion-lenses (SIL) by focused ion beam milling into diamond substrates that are registered to a preselected single photon emitter are summarized. We show how we determine the position of a single emitter
with at least 100 nm lateral and 500 nm axial accuracy, and how the milling procedure is optimized. The characteristics of a single emitter, a Nitrogen Vacancy (NV) center in diamond, are measured before and after producing the SIL and compared with each other. A count rate of 1.0 million counts per second is achieved with a $[111]$ oriented NV center.
Optical detection and spectroscopy of single molecules has become an indispensable tool in biological imaging and sensing. Its success is based on fluorescence of organic dye molecules under carefully engineered laser illumination. In this paper we d
emonstrate optical detection of single molecules on a wide-field microscope with an illumination based on a commercially available, green light-emitting diode. The results are directly compared with laser illumination in the same experimental configuration. The setup and the limiting factors, such as light transfer to the sample, spectral filtering and the resulting signal-to-noise ratio are discussed. A theoretical and an experimental approach to estimate these parameters are presented. The results can be adapted to other single emitter and illumination schemes.
Many quantum key distribution (QKD) implementations using a free space transmission path are restricted to operation at night time in order to distinguish the signal photons used for a secure key establishment from background light. Here, we present
a lean entanglement-based QKD system overcoming that imitation. By implementing spectral, spatial and temporal filtering techniques, we were able to establish a secure key continuously over several days under varying light and weather conditions.
