Modeling the diffraction-limited images of interacting emitters and plasmonic nanoantennas

Abstract

The combination of optical microscopy and nanoscale antennas has great potential, but numerous complexities must first be understood. In this dissertation I use simple mathematical models of plasmonic nanoantennas interacting with their environment together with models of the diffraction limited imaging process occurring in a modern microscope to solve previously open questions in the literature. The two major stories are (1) resolving the mislocalization of molecules in plasmon-enhanced super-resolution fluorescence microscopy and (2) unification of past photothermal imaging theories and generalizing the formalism to resonant phenomena.