We present an experiment where a single molecule strongly affects the amplitude and phase of a laser field emerging from a subwavelength aperture. We achieve a visibility of -6% in direct and +10% in cross-polarized detection schemes. Our analysis shows that a close to full extinction should be possible using near-field excitation.
@article{arxiv.quant-ph/0604177,
title = {Strong extinction of a laser beam by a single molecule},
author = {I. Gerhardt and G. Wrigge and P. Bushev and G. Zumofen and R. Pfab and V. Sandoghdar},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:quant-ph/0604177},
year = {2007}
}