Molecular fluorescence above metallic gratings

P. Andrew and William L. Barnes, Physical Review B, Vol. 64, article 125405 (2001). "Copyright © 2001 by the American Physical Society."We present measurements of the fluorescence of emitters located in close proximity (d<λ) to metallic grating surfaces. By measuring both the spontaneous emission lifetime and angle-dependent radiation pattern of a monolayer of dye molecules as a function of their separation from planar and periodically corrugated mirrors of increasing modulation depth, we are able to examine the effect of varying the surface profile on the emission process. Both the distance dependence of the lifetime and the spatial distribution of the emitted light are significantly changed upon the introduction of a corrugation, quite apart from the appearance of the familiar Bragg-scattered bound-mode features. It is postulated that these perturbations arise from the interference of the grating scattered dipole fields with the usual upward propagating and reflected fields. In addition, the measurement of nonexponential decay transients for the deepest gratings examined provide evidence for the existence of optically dissimilar dipole positions above the grating surface

Individualizing therapy – in search of approaches to maximize the benefit of drug treatment (II)

Adjusting drug therapy to the individual, a common approach in clinical practice, has evolved from 1) dose adjustments based on clinical effects to 2) dose adjustments made in response to drug levels and, more recently, to 3) dose adjustments based on deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) sequencing of drug-metabolizing enzyme genes, suggesting a slow drug metabolism phenotype. This development dates back to the middle of the 20(th )century, when several different drugs were administered on the basis of individual plasma concentration measurements. Genetic control of drug metabolism was well established by the 1960s, and pharmakokinetic-based individualized therapy was in use by 1973

Molecular fluorescence at a rough surface: the orientation effects

The problem of the dynamical interaction between an emitting dipole and a metallic grating surface is considered with particular interest in the effects due to different orientations of the dipole with respect to the substrate surface. Our previous perturbative theory is extended to treat both parallel and perpendicular dipoles and the results are applied to the study of modified fluorescence characteristics for admolecules in the vicinity of a rough metal surface modeled as a grating. Numerical results show that some of the characteristics are very sensitive to the molecular orientation and the one along the grating direction is manifested with some unique behavior. The possibility of lengthening molecular lifetimes at a patterned surface is indicated via the manipulation of the surface roughness as well as the orientations of the molecules. In addition, the limitation of the usual step in averaging the theoretical results in the comparison with experimental measured values is pointed out