%0 Journal Article
%T Three-dimensional orientation measurement of a single fluorescent nanoemitter by polarization analysis
%A Clotilde Lethiec
%A Julien Laverdant
%A Henri Vallon
%A Cl¨¦mentine Javaux
%A Beno£¿t Dubertret
%A Jean-Marc Frigerio
%A Catherine Schwob
%A Laurent Coolen
%A Agn¨¨s Ma£¿tre
%J Physics
%D 2013
%I arXiv
%X We demonstrate theoretically and experimentally that the three-dimensional orientation of a single fluorescent nano-emitter can be determined by polarization analysis of the emitted light (while excitation polarization analysis provides only the in-plane orientation). The determination of the emitter orientation by polarimetry requires a theoretical description including the objective numerical aperture, the 1D or 2D nature of the emitting dipole and the environment close to the dipole. We develop a model covering most experimentally relevant microscopy configurations and provide analytical relations useful for orientation measurements. We perform polarimetric measurements on high-quality core-shell CdSe/CdS nanocrystals and demonstrate that they can be approximated by two orthogonal degenerated dipoles. Finally, we show that the orientation of a dipole can be inferred by polarimetric measurement even for a dipole in the vicinity of a gold film, while in this case the well-established defocused microscopy is not appropriate.
%U http://arxiv.org/abs/1301.4063v2