Single-molecule spontaneous emission close to absorbing nanostructures

The spontaneous emission of a single molecule is substantially modified close to a metallic nanostructure. We study the spectral behavior of the radiative and nonradiative decay rates and of the local-field factor in the vicinity of a plasmon resonance. We show that the highest fluorescence enhancement is obtained for an emission wavelength redshifted from the plasmon resonance, and that quenching always dominates at plasmon resonance. These results may have experimental implications in spectroscopy and monitoring of elementary light sources. (C) 2004 American Institute of Physics.