Decoupling absorption and emission processes in super-resolution localisation of emitters in a plasmonic hotspot
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Published version
Author(s)
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
The absorption process of an emitter close to a plasmonic antenna is enhanced due to strong local electromagnetic (EM) fields. The emission process, if resonant with the plasmonic system, re-radiates to the far-field by coupling with the antenna due to the availability of plasmonic states. This increases the local density of states (LDOS), effectively providing more, or alternate, pathways for emission. Through the mapping of localized emission events from single molecules close to plasmonic antennas – performed using far-field data – one gains combined information on both the local EM field strength and the LDOS available. The localization from these emission-coupled events generally do not, therefore, report the real position of the molecules, nor the EM enhancement distribution at the illuminating wavelength. Here we propose the use of a fluorescent molecule with a large Stokes shift in order to spectrally decouple the emission process of the dye from the plasmonic system, leaving only the absorption strongly in resonance with the enhanced EM field in the antenna’s vicinity. We demonstrate that this technique provides an effective way of exploring either the EM field or the LDOS with nanometre spatial resolution.
Date Issued
2017-02-17
Date Acceptance
2017-01-03
Citation
Nature Communications, 2017, 8
ISSN
2041-1723
Publisher
Nature Publishing Group
Journal / Book Title
Nature Communications
Volume
8
Copyright Statement
© The Author(s) 2017. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0
International License. The images or other third party material in this
article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise
in the credit line; if the material is not included under the Creative Commons license,
users will need to obtain permission from the license holder to reproduce the material.
To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
International License. The images or other third party material in this
article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise
in the credit line; if the material is not included under the Creative Commons license,
users will need to obtain permission from the license holder to reproduce the material.
To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Sponsor
The Leverhulme Trust
Engineering & Physical Science Research Council (E
Grant Number
RPG-2014-018
EP/M013812/1
Subjects
Science & Technology
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Science & Technology - Other Topics
SINGLE-MOLECULE
NANOMETER-SCALE
NEAR-FIELD
FLUORESCENCE MICROSCOPY
METALLIC NANOSTRUCTURES
LOCAL-DENSITY
NANOANTENNA
ALUMINUM
ENHANCEMENT
NANOSCALE
MD Multidisciplinary
Publication Status
Published
Article Number
14513