title: Plasmonic band structure controls single-molecule fluorescence.
abstract: Plasmonics and photonic crystals are two complementary approaches to tailor single-emitter fluorescence, using strong local field enhancements near metals on one hand and spatially extended photonic band structure effects on the other hand. Here, we explore the emergence of spontaneous emission control by finite-sized hexagonal arrays of nanoapertures milled in gold film. We demonstrate that already small lattices enable highly directional and enhanced emission from single fluorescent molecules in the central aperture. Even for clusters just four unit cells across, the directionality is set by the plasmonic crystal band structure, as confirmed by full-wave numerical simulations. This realization of plasmonic phase array antennas driven by single quantum emitters opens a flexible toolbox to engineer fluorescence and its detection.
authors.affiliation: Center for Nanophotonics, FOM Institute for Atomic and Molecular Physics (AMOLF) , Science Park 104, 1098 XG Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Lutz
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Langguth
authors.forename: Deep
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Punj
authors.forename: Jérôme
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Wenger
authors.forename: A Femius
authors.initials: AF
authors.lastname: Koenderink