@article{ChuBrennerChenetal.2014,
  author    = {Chu, X. -L. and Brenner, Thomas J. K. and Chen, X. -W. and Ghosh, Y. and Hollingsworth, J. A. and Sandoghdar, Vahid and Goetzinger, S.},
  title     = {Experimental realization of an optical antenna designed for collecting 99\% of photons from a quantum emitter},
  series = {Optica},
  volume    = {1},
  journal   = {Optica},
  number    = {4},
  publisher = {Optical Society of America},
  address   = {Washington},
  issn      = {2334-2536},
  doi       = {10.1364/OPTICA.1.000203},
  pages     = {203 -- 208},
  year      = {2014},
  abstract  = {A light source that emits single photons at well-defined times and into a well-defined mode would be a decisive asset for quantum information processing, quantum metrology, and sub-shot-noise detection of absorption. One of the central challenges in the realization of such a deterministic device based on a single quantum emitter concerns the collection of the photons, which are radiated into a 4 pi solid angle. Here, we present the fabrication and characterization of an optical antenna designed to convert the dipolar radiation of an arbitrarily oriented quantum emitter to a directional beam with more than 99\% efficiency. Our approach is extremely versatile and can be used for more efficient detection of nanoscopic emitters ranging from semiconductor quantum dots to dye molecules, color centers, or rare-earth ions in various environments. Having addressed the issue of collection efficiency, we also discuss the photophysical limitations of the existing quantum emitters for the realization of a deterministic single-photon source. (C) 2014 Optical Society of America},
  language  = {en}
}
@article{HenkelSandoghdar1998,
  author    = {Henkel, Carsten and Sandoghdar, Vahid},
  title     = {Single-molecule sprectroscopy near structured dielectrics},
  year      = {1998},
  abstract  = {We present an analytical approach to the calculation of the linewidth and lineshift of an atom or molecule in the near field of a structured dielectric surface. For soft surface corrugations with amplitude lambda/50, we find variations of the linewidth in the ten percent region. More strikingly, the shift of the molecular resonance can reach several natural linewidths. We demonstrate that the lateral resolution is of the order of the molecule-surface distance. We give a semiquantitative explanation of the outcome of our calculations that is based on simple intuitive models.},
  language  = {en}
}
@article{RogobeteSchnieppSandoghdaretal.2003,
  author    = {Rogobete, Lavinia and Schniepp, H. and Sandoghdar, Vahid and Henkel, Carsten},
  title     = {Spontaneous emission in nanoscopic dielectric particles},
  issn      = {0030-3992},
  year      = {2003},
  language  = {en}
}
@article{KalkbrennerHakansonSchadleetal.2005,
  author    = {Kalkbrenner, T. and Hakanson, U. and Schadle, A. and Burger, S. and Henkel, Carsten and Sandoghdar, Vahid},
  title     = {Optical microscopy via spectral modifications of a nanoantenna},
  issn      = {0031-9007},
  year      = {2005},
  abstract  = {The existing optical microscopes form an image by collecting photons emitted from an object. Here we report on the experimental realization of microscopy without the need for direct optical communication with the sample. To achieve this, we have scanned a single gold nanoparticle acting as a nanoantenna in the near field of a sample and have studied the modification of its intrinsic radiative properties by monitoring its plasmon spectrum},
  language  = {en}
}