Nanoscale near-field imaging of excitons in single heterostructured nanorods.

The mixed 0D-1D dimensionality of heterostructured semiconductor nanorods, resulting from the dot-in-rod architecture, raises intriguing questions concerning the location and confinement of the exciton and the origin of the fluorescence in such structures. Using apertureless near-field distance-dependent lifetime imaging together with AFM topography, we directly map the emission and determine its location with high precision along different types of nanorods. We find that the fluorescence is emanating from a sub-20 nm region, correlated to the seed location, clearly indicating exciton localization.