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Updated: Jun 13, 2026

Measurement of Scattering Nonlinearities from a Single Plasmonic Nanoparticle
Published on: January 3, 2016
Spontaneous emission of a nanoscopic emitter in a strongly scattering disordered medium
P V Ruijgrok1, R Wüest, A A Rebane
1Laboratory of Physical Chemistry and optETH, ETH Zürich, Switzerland.
Abstract:
Fluorescence lifetimes of nitrogen-vacancy color centers in individual diamond nanocrystals were measured at the interface between a glass substrate and a strongly scattering medium. Comparison of the results with values recorded from the same nanocrystals at the glass-air interface revealed fluctuations of fluorescence lifetimes in the scattering medium. After discussing a range of possible systematic effects, we attribute the observed lengthening of the lifetimes to the reduction of the local density of states. Our approach is very promising for exploring the strong threedimensional localization of light directly on the microscopic scale.
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