title: Selective excitation of single molecules coupled to the bright mode of a plasmonic cavity.
abstract: Plasmon-based optical antennas featuring a nanometer-sized gap can enhance the photophysical properties of solid-state quantum emitters by several orders of magnitude at room temperature. However, controlling the position and orientation of an isolated emitter in a metallic resonator, at the nanometer scale, has only been achieved in scanning probe geometries. Using radially polarized cylindrical vector beams and DNA-assembled gold nanoparticle dimers, we demonstrate the reproducible interaction of single dye molecules with the bright longitudinal mode of a plasmonic cavity, achieving decay rate enhancements of 2 orders of magnitude. These results demonstrate that interfacing efficiently isolated quantum emitters and optical nanoantennas is possible on a large scale.
authors.affiliation: Institut Langevin, ESPCI ParisTech, CNRS UMR 7587, 1 rue Jussieu, 75005 Paris, France.
authors.forename: Mickaël P
authors.initials: MP
authors.lastname: Busson
authors.forename: Sébastien
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Bidault