Plasmonics now delivers sensors capable of detecting single molecules. The emission enhancements and nanometer-scale optical confinement achieved by these metallic nanostructures vastly increase spectroscopic sensitivity, enabling real-time tracking. However, the interaction of light with such nanostructures typically loses all information about the spatial location of molecules within a plasmonic hot spot. Here, we show that ultrathin plasmonic nanogaps support complete mode sets which strongly influence the far-field emission patterns of embedded emitters and allow the reconstruction of dipole positions with 1-nm precision. Emitters in different locations radiate spots, rings, and askew halo images, arising from interference of 2 radiating antenna modes differently coupling light out of the nanogap, highlighting the imaging potential of these plasmonic "crystal balls." Emitters at the center are now found to live indefinitely, because they radiate so rapidly.

中文翻译：

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通过等离子体纳米透镜进行纳米检查。

Plasmonics现在提供能够检测单个分子的传感器。这些金属纳米结构实现的发射增强和纳米级光学限制极大地提高了光谱灵敏度，实现了实时跟踪。但是，光与此类纳米结构的相互作用通常会丢失所有与等离子体热点内分子空间位置有关的信息。在这里，我们表明超薄等离子体纳米间隙支持完整的模式集，该模式集强烈影响嵌入式发射器的远场发射模式，并允许以1 nm的精度重建偶极子位置。2种辐射天线模式的干扰会导致不同位置的光从纳米间隙耦合出来，因此不同位置的发射器会辐射出斑点，环状和歪斜的光晕图像，突出显示了这些等离激元“晶体球”的成像潜力。现在发现位于中心的发射器可以无限期地生存，因为它们辐射得如此之快。