Single-molecule fluorescence near a metal layer Original Research Article

A theoretical study of the fluorescence emission properties of a single dye molecule near a metal film is presented. The study accounts not only for the well-known fluorescing quenching of a dye near a metal interface, but also for the reduced photobleaching rate due to the enhanced de-excitation rate. It is shown that despite the high fluorescence quenching rates, the increased photostability of the molecule makes spectroscopic studies on single-molecule level feasible.