Detection of single molecules or particles avoids ensemble averaging and thus is able to provide a very local heterogeneous information which is not available from an ensemble measurement. Single... Show moreDetection of single molecules or particles avoids ensemble averaging and thus is able to provide a very local heterogeneous information which is not available from an ensemble measurement. Single molecules or particles can be detected based on their three characteristic optical properties, absorption, scattering and fluorescence/photoluminescence, in addition to their label-free detection. This short review focuses on our group's research towards understanding and imaging the above three kinds of optical signals from single molecules and particles. Show less
