Hyper-Resolved Fluorescence Microscopy with STM

In this thesis, I report the use a Scanning Tunneling Microscope to obtain the fluorescence spectrum of a single molecule, to go beyond the limitations commonly observed in conventionnal optical techniques. This technique relies on the use of tunneling electrons to excite the fluorescence of a molecule, which is amplified by electromagnetic modes of the cavity, formed by the tip and the sample, knows as gap plasmons. The results of this thesis, confirm that these modes are strongly localized within volumes of the order of 1 nm3, allowing to carried out « optical imaging » at the sub-molecular scale. This Hyper-Resolved Fluorescence Microscopy technique allowed us i) To track with : spatial, spectral and temporal resolution a tautomerization process, ii) To measure a vibrationnal signature with sub-molecular resolution, and iii) To monitor the fluorescnece of a single molecule redox state.