Spatial photoselection of single molecules on the surface of spherical microcavities
- Oak Ridge National Laboratory, P.O. Box 2008, Oak Ridge, Tennessee 37831-6142 (United States)
- Army Research Laboratory, Adelphi, Maryland 20783-1155 (United States)
We show that ultrasensitive microdroplet-stream fluorescence techniques combined with surfactant forms of Rhodamine dyes can be used to probe single molecules on the surfaces of spherical microcavities. Individual octadecyl Rhodamine B molecules, shown previously by ensemble measurements to be localized and oriented at the surfaces of liquid microspheres, were spatially photoselected primarily along great circles lying perpendicular or parallel to the detection axis by use of polarized laser excitation. A polarization dependence is observed in the distribution of single-molecule fluorescence amplitudes that can be interpreted qualitatively in terms of position-dependent fluorescence-collection efficiencies. {copyright} {ital 1998} {ital Optical Society of America}
- Research Organization:
- Oak Ridge National Laboratory
- DOE Contract Number:
- AC05-96OR22464
- OSTI ID:
- 636152
- Journal Information:
- Optics Letters, Journal Name: Optics Letters Journal Issue: 12 Vol. 23; ISSN OPLEDP; ISSN 0146-9592
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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