SINGLE-MOLECULE SPECTROSCOPY AND SPECTRAL HOLE-BURNING

Spectral hole-burning in the Shpol'skii system terrylene in n-octane h as been investigated on the single molecule level. Fluorescence micros copy provides a link between the two methods of spectral hole-burning and single molecule spectroscopy. Information about many different ind ividual molecules can be obtained simultaneously under identical exper imental conditions allowing the determination of statistical propertie s. From a single frequency scan after spectral hole-burning, the groun d state population function and an average hole-width, as well as the single molecule linewidth distribution of 700 molecules have been dete rmined.