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Nanophotonics

Turning single molecule vibrations into visible light

Vibrations of individual molecules are difficult to detect due to thermal noise. In a recent report, researchers overcome this challenge, upconverting mid-infrared photons into visible light using nanophotonic cavities. The result is high-efficiency optical readout for single-molecule vibrational spectroscopy.

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Fig. 1: Experimental strategy of Chikkaraddy et al. for single-molecule MIR spectroscopy via vibrationally assisted luminescence (MIR-VAL).

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Correspondence to Matthew Sheldon.

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Sheldon, M. Turning single molecule vibrations into visible light. Nat. Photon. 17, 835–836 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41566-023-01289-8

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