title: Strong electromagnetic confinement near dielectric microspheres to enhance single-molecule fluorescence.
abstract: 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.
authors.affiliation: Institut Fresnel, Aix-Marseille Université, CNRS, 13397 Marseille, France.
authors.forename: Davy
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Gérard
authors.forename: Jérôme
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Wenger
authors.forename: Alexis
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Devilez
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Gachet
authors.forename: Brian
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Stout
authors.forename: Nicolas
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Bonod
authors.forename: Evgeny
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Popov
authors.forename: Hervé
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Rigneault
mesh_terms: 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
chemical_list: D007840:Latex