SINGLE-MOLECULE SPECTROSCOPY OF TERRYLENE IN N-ALKANE MIXTURES

To answer the question of whether special Shpol'skii guest-host combin ations which exhibit well-defined trapping sites are essential for sin gle molecule spectroscopy, we have reinvestigated at high-resolution t he fluorescence of single molecules of terrylene. Our experiments have demonstrated that similar to the well-known terrylene-n-decane ''Shpo l'skii'' system, spectra of comparable quality and with lifetime-limit ed linewidths of about 50 MHz can also be obtained in several mixtures of alkanes. In the light of these results we then discuss the prospec ts for single molecule (or single ion) spectroscopy in rare gas matric es. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science B.V.