Mapping Lamb, Stark and Purcell effects at a chromophore-picocavity junction with hyper-resolved fluorescence microscopy

Abstract

The interactions between the excited states of a single chromophore with static and dynamic electric fields confined to a plasmonic cavity of picometer dimensions are investigated in a joint experimental and theoretical effort. In this configuration, the spatial extensions of the confined fields are smaller than the one of the molecular exciton, a property that is used to generate fluorescence maps of the chromophores with intra-molecular resolution. Theoretical simulations of the electrostatic and electrodynamic interactions occurring at the chromophore-picocavity junction are able to reproduce and interpret these hyper-resolved fluorescence maps, and reveal the key role played by subtle variations of Purcell, Lamb and Stark effects at the chromophore-picocavity junction.