Strong electromagnetic confinement near dielectric microspheres to enhance single-molecule fluorescence.
Latex microspheres are used as a simple and low-cost means to achieve three axis electromagnetic confinement below the standard diffraction limit. We demonstrate their use to enhance the fluorescence fluctuation detection of single molecules. Compared to confocal microscopy with high numerical aperture, we monitor a detection volume reduction of one order of magnitude below the diffraction limit together with a 5-fold gain in the fluorescence rate per molecule. This offers new opportunities for a broad range of applications in biophotonics, plasmonics, optical data storage and ultramicroscopy.
Gérard
Davy
D
Institut Fresnel, Aix-Marseille Université, CNRS, 13397 Marseille, France.
Wenger
Jérôme
J
Devilez
Alexis
A
Gachet
David
D
Stout
Brian
B
Bonod
Nicolas
N
Popov
Evgeny
E
Rigneault
Hervé
H
D004574:Electromagnetic Fields; D007089:Image Enhancement / Q000379:methods*; D007840:Latex; D008163:Luminescent Measurements; D008856:Microscopy, Fluorescence / Q000379:methods*; D008863:Microspheres; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity
D007840:Latex