William E. Moerner coauthored optical detection and spectroscopy of individual molecules in a solid. Resolving a single emitter separates its response from the average over many molecular environments.
The experiment connects spectral selectivity and optical sensitivity with molecular-level observation. A measured ensemble line can hide distinctions that become visible when individual molecules are observed.[ref]
Optical detection and spectroscopy of single molecules in a solid by W. E. Moerner and L. Kador. Primary single-molecule optical detection paper
Portrait of William E. Moerner
. Christopher P. Michel (Cmichel67), own photograph, 18 July 2024. Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International., via Wikimedia Commons. Source. Articles by others on the same topic
William E. Moerner is an American physicist and a notable figure in the field of chemistry and biophysics. He is best known for his contributions to the development of super-resolution microscopy, a technique that allows scientists to observe the behavior of molecules at the nanometer scale. Moerner was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2014, along with Eric Betzig and Stefan W.