Enhancing single-molecule photostability by optical feedback from quantum-jump detection

Vincent Jacques (1) , John Murray (1) , François Marquier (2) , Dominique Chauvat (1) , Frédéric Grosshans (1) , François Treussart (1) , Jean-François Roch (1)

1 LPQM - Laboratoire de Photonique Quantique et Moléculaire
2 EM2C - Laboratoire d'Énergétique Moléculaire et Macroscopique, Combustion

We report an optical technique that yields an enhancement of single-molecule photostability, by greatly suppressing photobleaching pathways which involve photoexcitation from the triplet state. This is accomplished by dynamically switching off the excitation laser when a quantum-jump of the molecule to the triplet state is optically detected. This procedure leads to a lengthened single-molecule observation time and an increased total number of detected photons. The resulting improvement in photostability unambiguously confirms the importance of photoexcitation from the triplet state in photobleaching dynamics, and may allow the investigation of new phenomena at the single-molecule level.

Domaines: Physique Quantique [quant-ph]; Chimie-Physique [physics.chem-ph]; Optique [physics.optics]

Vincent Jacques, John Murray, François Marquier, Dominique Chauvat, Frédéric Grosshans, et al.. Enhancing single-molecule photostability by optical feedback from quantum-jump detection. 2007. ⟨hal-00164600⟩