Influencing a single fluorescent molecule with single metallic nanoparticle

Influence of a single metallic nanoparticle on the emission properties of a single fluorophore is a investigated. A shear-force based scanning near-field optical microscope (SNOM) is used, to position a single gold nanoparticle in front of an ultrathin crystalline film, containing oriented molecules. By measuring the emission intensity and fluorescence lifetime, the modification of the optical properties of a single molecule due to its interaction with the gold nanoparticle is studied.