A Comparison of Single-Molecule Emission in Aluminum and Gold Zero-Mode Waveguides

W. Elliott Martin, Bernadeta R. Srijanto, C. Patrick Collier, Tom Vosch, Christopher I. Richards

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

21 Scopus citations

Abstract

The effect of gold and aluminum zero-mode waveguides (ZMWs) on the brightness of immobilized single emitters was characterized by probing fluorophores that absorb in the green and red regions of the visible spectrum. Aluminum ZMWs enhance the emission of Atto565 fluorophores upon green excitation, but they do not enhance the emission of Atto647N fluorophores upon red excitation. Gold ZMWs increase emission of both fluorophores with Atto647N showing enhancement that is threefold higher than that observed for Atto565. This work indicates that 200 nm gold ZMWs are better suited for single-molecule fluorescence studies in the red region of the visible spectrum, while aluminum appears more suited for the green region of the visible spectrum.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)6719-6727
Number of pages9
JournalJournal of Physical Chemistry A
Volume120
Issue number34
DOIs
StatePublished - Sep 1 2016

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