Abstract
The optical near-field in the vicinity of a metal tip is mapped using a single-molecule optical probe. We observe an enhancement of the fluorescence signal by a factor of 5.7±0.3, clearly larger than the fourfold enhancement that can arise from constructive interference if the tip acts as a simple mirror. Considering the tip apex as a nanoparticle of nonregular shape, we suggest that, in the case of gold tips, the enhancement is due to resonant plasmon excitation. Consistently, no enhancement has been observed using Pt/Ir tips.
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