Plasmonic nanoantennas mediate far and near optical fields and confine the light to subwavelength dimensions. Directional plasmonic antennas increase the emission and collection efficiency of optical networks. To obtain directionality, the spatial organization of nanoantenna elements is critical as it affects the interelement coupling and determines the resultant antenna mode. Moreover, to drive the antenna from its near field, near-field sources such as quantum emitters are required and their distance with respect to antenna elements is the main determinant in coupling between the main antenna mode and the emitter. To couple quantum emitters to optical antennas, high precision on the order of a few nm with respect to the antenna is necessary. As an emerging nanofabrication technique, DNA origami has proven itself to be a robust nanobreadboard to obtain sub-5 nm positioning precision for a diverse range of materials. Here, we use DNA origami to assemble a nanoantenna composed of three gold nanoparticles with sub-5 nm interparticle gaps to break the symmetry and scatter light in one direction very strongly compared to the rest of the directions. To drive this antenna, we place a single emitter, Atto647N dye molecule, exactly at one of the hotspots of the trimer. Here we present the first time realization of a unidirectional plasmonic nanoantenna driven by a single quantum emitter assembled by DNA origami.
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