An algorithm for super-resolved reconstruction of single-photon emitter locations from g ( 2 ) ( 0 ) maps

Single-photon sources are vital for emerging quantum technologies. In particular, Nitrogen-vacancy (NV) centers in diamond are promising due to their room-temperature stability, long spin coherence, and compatibility with nanophotonic structures. A key challenge, however, is the reliable identification of isolated NV centers, since conventional confocal microscopy is diffraction-limited and cannot resolve emitter distributions within a focal spot. Besides, the associated intensity scanning is a time-expensive procedure. Here, we introduce a simulation-based raster-scanned g ( 2 ) ( 0 ) mapping technique combined with an inversion-based reconstruction algorithm. Using synthetically generated photon-timestamp data for randomly distributed NV centers under a scanned Gaussian excitation profile, by directly measuring local photon antibunching across the field of view, we extract the effective emitter number within each focal spot and reconstruct occupancy maps on a sub-focal-spot grid. This enables recovery of the number and spatial distribution of emitters within regions smaller than the confocal focal spot, thereby offering possibilities of going beyond the diffraction limit. Simulations confirm robust reconstruction of NV-center distributions. The method reduces experimental effort in identifying isolated emitters by inferring the effective emitter number and sub-diffraction occupancy within each focal spot in a single scan, thereby avoiding unnecessary searches in regions that do not contain single emitters, as commonly encountered in intensity-based scanning approaches. It offers valuable feedback for nanophotonic device fabrication, supporting more precise and scalable integration of NV-based quantum photonic technologies.