Stochastic inner workings of subdiffraction laser writing

Ultrafast laser writing of single lattice defects in wide-bandgap semiconductors is shown to present a new, to the best of our knowledge, physical setting in which deeply subwavelength laser-writing positioning precision is attainable but where the whole notion of positioning can only be understood in a statistical sense. We outline a framework for the analysis of this class of laser-matter interactions, grounding the concepts of optical super-resolution and subdiffraction positioning in statistical optics. Working along these lines, we derive closed-form solutions for physically meaningful quantifiers of laser-matter interactions on a subwavelength scale, suggesting a physically clear view of how deeply subdiffraction resolution can emerge from the interplay between determinism and stochasticity. We show that subdiffraction positioning precision in single-lattice-defect laser writing is achieved at the cost of a lower success rate, setting physical bounds on the scalability of integrated quantum photonic systems fabricated by means of super-resolving laser writing.