Emission rate and collection efficiency of photons from single terrylene molecules: Dependency on the substrate and the collection lens

Abstract

Photons emitted from a single emitter are promising candidates for an efficient single-photon source, which is essential for many novel nano- and quantum-optical applications. As a photon source having a larger flux and high reliability is highly desirable. In this paper, we quantitatively studied the dependencies of the numbers of photons emitted and collected from single terrylene molecules on different experimental conditions, the refractive index of the substrate and the numerical aperture of the collection lens. Also, back-focal plane images are used to visualize the emission pattern of a single emitter.