Prospects for Molecular Spectroscopy at High Spatial Resolution

Abstract

This work discusses the prospects and feasibility of optical spectroscopy and microscopy of single molecules at nanometer resolution via apertureless, antenna-based near-field scanning optical microscopy. First, different near-field optical methods are compared, which detect the weak scattering or fluorescence from a probe–single molecule interaction at high spatial resolution. Specifically, ultimate sensitivities of coherent (bright-field) and non-coherent (dark-field) apertureless near-field microscopes for resonant (e.g., scattering, absorption) and non-resonant (e.g.,