Note to users. If you're seeing this message, it means that your browser cannot find this page's style/presentation instructions -- or possibly that you are using a browser that does not support current Web standards. Find out more about why this message is appearing, and what you can do to make your experience of our site the best it can be.

Science 1 July 1994:
Vol. 265. no. 5168, pp. 46 - 53
DOI: 10.1126/science.265.5168.46
Prev | Table of Contents | Next

Articles

Examining Nanoenvironments in Solids on the Scale of a Single, Isolated Impurity Molecule

W. E. Moerner 1

1 IBM Research Division, Almaden Research Center, 650 Harry Road, K13/801, San Jose, CA 95120-6099, USA, and Laboratory of Physical Chemistry, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Universitätstrasse 22, CH-8092, Zürich, Switzerland

Optical spectroscopy of single impurity molecules in solids can be used as an exquisitely sensitive probe of the structure and dynamics of the specific local environment around the single molecule (the "nanoenvironment"). Recently observed effects such as spectral diffusion, perturbations by external fields, changes in molecular photophysics, shifts in vibrational modes, optical modification of the absorption spectrum, dynamics due to amorphous system physics, and magnetic resonance of a single molecular spin attest to the vitality of and growing interest in this new field, which may lead to optical storage on the single-molecule level.


THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
Single-molecule Chemistry and Biology Special Feature: New directions in single-molecule imaging and analysis.
W. E. Moerner (2007)
PNAS 104, 12596-12602
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Single-Molecule Studies of Heterogeneous Dynamics in Polymer Melts Near the Glass Transition.
L. A. Deschenes and D. A. Vanden Bout (2001)
Science 292, 255-258
   Abstract »    Full Text »
Illuminating Single Molecules in Condensed Matter.
W. E. Moerner and M. Orrit (1999)
Science 283, 1670-1676
   Abstract »    Full Text »
Observation of Individual Chemical Reactions in Solution.
M. M. Collinson and R. M. Wightman (1995)
Science 268, 1883-1885
   Abstract »    PDF »
Single Molecule Electron Paramagnetic Resonance Spectroscopy: Hyperfine Splitting Owing to a Single Nucleus.
J. Kohler, A. C. J. Brouwer, E. J. J. Groenen, and J. Schmidt (1995)
Science 268, 1457-1460
   Abstract »    PDF »
Electrochemical Detection of Single Molecules.
F.-R. F. Fan and A. J. Bard (1995)
Science 267, 871-874
   Abstract »    PDF »
Probing individual molecules with confocal fluorescence microscopy.
S Nie, D. Chiu, and R. Zare (1994)
Science 266, 1018-1021
   Abstract »    PDF »


To Advertise     Find Products

Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)