Abstract

Single-particle spectroscopy has become a source of valuable information on fundamental interactions between light and mat- ter. Whereas trapping and cooling of ions and atoms has been successfully achieved, single molecules, because of their multilevel structure (high number of internal degrees of freedom) have not to date been observed in electromagnetic traps. However, because of the presence of zero phonon lines in conjunction with inhomogeneous broadening, the spectroscopic isolation and detection of single molecules trapped in solids at very low temperatures has been made feasible.^1,2 Single-molecule spectroscopy permits the study of the distribution of molecular properties in addition to the statistical average that is generally observed.

© 1993 Optical Society of America