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Microscopy

Single-molecule light absorption

Nature Photonics volume 5, pages 80–81 (2011)Cite this article

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It has long been thought that the detection of individual molecules in ambient conditions via their absorption signature was out of reach. Now, three independent research groups have developed three different methods that allow such a feat.

In the natural sciences, insights on the molecular scale are often derived from bulk spectroscopic studies. Statistical analysis is used to relate these macroscopic, ensemble-averaged spectroscopic observations to the time-averaged pictures of individual molecules at the microscopic level. Such analysis, based on ergodic theory, masks static and dynamic heterogeneities and fails to describe complex, inhomogeneous systems.

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Figure 1: Three different methods that allow detection of light absorption by single molecules (yellow dot) in the focus of a light beam (blue).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Johan Hofkens is in the Department of Chemistry of the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Celestijnenlaan 200F, B-3001 Heverlee, Belgium. johan.hofkens@chem.kuleuven.be,

    Johan Hofkens

  2. Maarten B. J. Roeffaers is in the Department of Microbial and Molecular Systems of the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Kasteelpark Arenberg 23, B-3001 Heverlee, Belgium. maarten.roeffaers@biw.kuleuven.be,

    Maarten B. J. Roeffaers

Authors
  1. Johan Hofkens
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  2. Maarten B. J. Roeffaers
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Hofkens, J., Roeffaers, M. Single-molecule light absorption. Nature Photon 5, 80–81 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1038/nphoton.2011.7

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