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APS » Journals » Phys. Rev. Lett. » Volume 81 » Issue 24
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Phys. Rev. Lett. 81, 5322–5325 (1998)

Simultaneous Imaging of Individual Molecules Aligned Both Parallel and Perpendicular to the Optic Axis

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Robert M. Dickson*, D. J. Norris†, and W. E. Moerner‡
Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, California 92093-0340

Received 14 May 1998; published in the issue dated 14 December 1998

See accompanying Physics Focus

We report the first room temperature observation of an emission pattern from a single fluorescent molecule signifying that the emission dipole is aligned along the optic (z) axis of a microscopic imaging system. This technique takes advantage of the x, y, and z-polarized evanescent fields generated in total internal reflection and the usually nettlesome aberrations commonly encountered when imaging biological samples with high numerical aperture oil-immersion objectives. For both z-oriented and transverse-oriented individual molecules of the carbocyanine dye DiIC18 embedded in polymethyl-methacrylate (PMMA), calculated images accurately model the main features of observed emission patterns.

© 1998 The American Physical Society

URL:
http://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevLett.81.5322
DOI:
10.1103/PhysRevLett.81.5322
PACS:
42.30.-d, 33.15.Kr, 33.50.-j, 33.80.-b

*Present and permanent address: School of Chemistry, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA 30332-0400. Email: dickson@chemistry.gatech.edu

†Present and permanent address: NEC Research Institute, Princeton, NJ 08540.

‡Present and permanent address: Department of Chemistry, Stauffer I, Room 15, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305-5080.

 
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