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Sub-nanometre resolution in single-molecule photoluminescence imaging

Yang, Ben; Chen, Gong; Ghafoor, Atif; Zhang, Yufan; Zhang, Yao; Zhang, Yang; Luo, Yi; Yang, Jinlong; Sandoghdar, Vahid; Aizpurua, Javier; Dong, Zhenchao; Hou, J. G.

NATURE PHOTONICS
2020
VL / 14 - BP / 693 - EP / +
abstract
Through the use of a plasmon-active atomically sharp tip and an ultrathin insulating film, and precise junction control in a highly confined nanocavity plasmon field at the scanning tunnelling microscope junction, sub-nanometre-resolved single-molecule near-field photoluminescence imaging with a spatial resolution down to similar to 8 angstrom is achieved. Ambitions to reach atomic resolution with light have been a major force in shaping nano-optics, whereby a central challenge is achieving highly localized optical fields. A promising approach employs plasmonic nanoantennas, but fluorescence quenching in the vicinity of metallic structures often imposes a strict limit on the attainable spatial resolution, and previous studies have reached only 8 nm resolution in fluorescence mapping. Here, we demonstrate spatially and spectrally resolved photoluminescence imaging of a single phthalocyanine molecule coupled to nanocavity plasmons in a tunnelling junction with a spatial resolution down to similar to 8 angstrom and locally map the molecular exciton energy and linewidth at sub-molecular resolution. This remarkable resolution is achieved through an exquisite nanocavity control, including tip-apex engineering with an atomistic protrusion, quenching management through emitter-metal decoupling and sub-nanometre positioning precision. Our findings provide new routes to optical imaging, spectroscopy and engineering of light-matter interactions at sub-nanometre scales.

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