Related papers: Direct detection of single molecules by optical ab…

We present a thorough analysis of single atom detection using optical cavities. The large set of parameters that influence the signal-to-noise ratio for cavity detection is considered, with an emphasis on detunings, probe power, cavity…

High-throughput label-free measurements of the optical and mechanical properties of single microparticles play an important role in biological research, drug development, and related large population assays. Mechanical detection techniques…

Single photon detectors are indispensable tools in optics, from fundamental measurements to quantum information processing. The ability of superconducting nanowire single photon detectors to detect single photons with unprecedented…

Optically active quantum dots, for instance self-assembled InGaAs quantum dots, are potentially excellent single photon sources. The fidelity of the single photons is much improved using resonant rather than non-resonant excitation. With…

Non-invasive light scattering methods provide data on biological macromolecules (i.e. proteins, nucleic acids, as well as assemblies and larger entities composed of them) that are complementary with those of size exclusion chromatography,…

Conventional absorption spectroscopy relies on coherent laser sources, and in turn suffers from the inherent limitation of shot noise, especially in estimating weak absorption. Here we propose a measurement strategy with correlated photons…

In the last years, it was demonstrated that neutral molecules can be loaded on a microchip directly from a supersonic beam. The molecules are confined in microscopic traps that can be moved smoothly over the surface of the chip. Once the…

Determination of optical absorption cross-section is always among the central importance of understanding a material. However its realization on individual nanostructures, such as carbon nanotubes, is experimentally challenging due to the…

Biological molecules, like all active matter, use free energy to generate force and motion which drive them out of thermal equilibrium, and undergo inherent dynamic interconversion between metastable free energy states separated by levels…

Sensors that are able to detect and track single unlabelled biomolecules are an important tool both to understand biomolecular dynamics and interactions at nanoscale, and for medical diagnostics operating at their ultimate detection limits.…

We present a method for the measurement of small optical absorption coefficients. The method exploits the deformation of cavity Airy peaks that occur if the cavity contains an absorbing material with a non-zero thermo-refractive coefficient…

Accurate knowledge of absorption coefficient of a sample is a prerequisite for measuring the third order optical nonlinearity of materials, which can be a serious limitation for unknown samples. We introduce a method, which measures both…

In Nature Photonics 5, 166 (2011), we reported on a planar dielectric antenna that achieved 96% efficiency in collecting the photons emitted by a single molecule. In that work the transition dipole moment of the molecule was set…

We introduce an absorption imaging technique for ultracold gases that suppresses interference fringes and coherence-induced artifacts by reducing the transverse spatial coherence of the imaging light. The method preserves the narrow…

Spectroscopy is an important tool for probing the properties of materials, chemicals and biological samples. We design a practical transmitter-receiver system that exploits entanglement to achieve a provable quantum advantage over all…

The orientation of luminescent molecules in organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) strongly influences device performance. However, our understanding of the factors controlling emitter orientation is limited as current measurements only…

Optical spectroscopy of molecular radicals is an important tool in physical chemistry, and is a prerequisite for many experiments which use molecules for quantum science and precision measurement. However, even the simplest molecules have…

We present a new scheme for performing optical spectroscopy on single molecules. A glass capillary with a diameter of 600 nm filled with an organic crystal tightly guides the excitation light and provides a maximum spontaneous emission…

We investigate the optical detection of single atoms held in a microscopic atom trap close to a surface. Laser light is guided by optical fibers or optical micro-structures via the atom to a photo-detector. Our results suggest that with…

An appealing definition of the term "molecule" arises from consideration of the nature of fluorescence, with discrete molecular entities emitting a stream of single photons. We address the question of how large a molecular object may become…