Abstract
Spectral diffusion is a result of random spectral jumps of a narrow line as a result of a fluctuating environment. It is an important issue in spectroscopy, because the observed spectral broadening prevents access to the intrinsic line properties. However, its characteristic parameters provide local information on the environment of a light emitter embedded in a solid matrix, or moving within a fluid, leading to numerous applications in physics and biology. We present a new experimental technique for measuring spectral diffusion based on photon correlations within a spectral line. Autocorrelation on half of the line and cross-correlation between the two halves give a quantitative value of the spectral diffusion time, with a resolution only limited by the correlation set-up. We have measured spectral diffusion of the photoluminescence of a single light emitter with a time resolution of 90 ps, exceeding by four orders of magnitude the best resolution reported to date.
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Acknowledgements
The authors acknowledge the very efficient technical support of F. Donatini and careful reading of the manuscript by Le Si Dang and G. Nogues. T.A. acknowledges support from the Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst (DAAD). Part of this work was supported by the European project QAP (contract no. 15848).
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G.S. conducted the optical experiments and analysed the data. A.T., T.A., R.A., S.T. and K.K. carried out fabrication and processing of the samples, and C.B. performed their structural analysis. G.S., L.B., M.R. and J.P.P. contributed to the genesis of the idea and to the discussion of the results. J.P.P. supervised the optical experiments and wrote the paper.
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Sallen, G., Tribu, A., Aichele, T. et al. Subnanosecond spectral diffusion measurement using photon correlation. Nature Photon 4, 696–699 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1038/nphoton.2010.174
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nphoton.2010.174
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