Optical spectroscopy of individual objects

Abstract

With the introduction of single-molecule spectroscopy it was immediately realised that studying molecules and molecular aggregates individually opens up a completely new approach to elucidate information commonly washed out by the ensemble average process. In contrast with ensemble experiments, this technique permits us to determine the whole distribution of parameters rather than their moments. This allows a more direct verification of theoretical models without the need to average over (unknown) distributions to calculate observables. Here we illustrate how single-molecule spectroscopy can be utilised to circumvent the classical diffraction limit of microscopy and show an investigation of the electronic structure of pigment protein complexes that are relevant for bacterial photosynthesis.