Super-resolution Airy disk microscopy of individual color centers in diamond

Super-resolution imaging techniques are critical to nanoscale microscopy in fields such as physics, biology, and chemistry. However, many super-resolution techniques require specialized optics components such as the vortex-waveplates used for stimulated emission and depletion (STED) microscopy. We present a novel technique, Super-resolution Airy disk Microscopy (SAM) that can be used in any standard confocal microscope without the need for specialized optics or physical modifications to the microscope. We demonstrate this technique using ground state depletion by imaging nitrogen-vacancy (NV) centers in bulk diamond below the diffraction limit. We achieve a greater than 14x fold improvement in resolution compared to the diffraction limit, corresponding to a measured spatial resolution of 16.6(8) nm. We illustrate the utility of this technique by localizing and performing individual measurements on pairs of NV centers separated by less than the diffraction limit, including two NV centers with the same orientation. Part of this work was performed under the auspices of US DOE by LLNL under Contract DE-AC52-07NA27344.