“Deterministic” quantum plasmonics.

We demonstrate “deterministic” launching of propagative quantum surface-plasmon polaritons at freely chosen positions on gold plasmonic receptacles. This is achieved by using as a plasmon launcher a near-field scanning optical source made of a diamond nanocrystal with two nitrogen-vacancy color-center occupancy. Our demonstration relies on leakage-radiation microscopy of a thin homogeneous gold film and on near-field optical microscopy of a nanostructured thick gold film. Our work paves the way to future fundamental studies and applications in quantum plasmonics that require an accurate positioning of single-plasmon sources and may open a new branch in plasmonics and nanophotonics, namely scanning quantum plasmonics.