title: Autocorrelation analysis for the unbiased determination of power-law exponents in single-quantum-dot blinking.
abstract: We present an unbiased and robust analysis method for power-law blinking statistics in the photoluminescence of single nanoemitters, allowing us to extract both the bright- and dark-state power-law exponents from the emitters' intensity autocorrelation functions. As opposed to the widely used threshold method, our technique therefore does not require discriminating the emission levels of bright and dark states in the experimental intensity timetraces. We rely on the simultaneous recording of 450 emission timetraces of single CdSe/CdS core/shell quantum dots at a frame rate of 250 Hz with single photon sensitivity. Under these conditions, our approach can determine ON and OFF power-law exponents with a precision of 3% from a comparison to numerical simulations, even for shot-noise-dominated emission signals with an average intensity below 1 photon per frame and per quantum dot. These capabilities pave the way for the unbiased, threshold-free determination of blinking power-law exponents at the microsecond time scale.
authors.affiliation: Institut Lumière-Matière, CNRS UMR5306, Université Lyon 1, Université de Lyon , 69622 Villeurbanne CEDEX, France.
authors.forename: Julien
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Houel
authors.forename: Quang T
authors.initials: QT
authors.lastname: Doan
authors.forename: Thomas
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Cajgfinger
authors.forename: Gilles
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Ledoux
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Amans
authors.forename: Antoine
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Aubret
authors.forename: Agnès
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Dominjon
authors.forename: Sylvain
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Ferriol
authors.forename: Rémi
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Barbier
authors.forename: Michel
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Nasilowski
authors.forename: Emmanuel
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Lhuillier
authors.forename: Benoît
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Dubertret
authors.forename: Christophe
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Dujardin
authors.forename: Florian
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Kulzer
keywords: colloidal quantum dots; intensity autocorrelation; nonergodicity; photoluminescence; power-law blinking