  We investigated the influence of the photonic mode density (PMD) on the
triplet dynamics of individual chromophores on a dielectric interface by
comparing their response in the presence and absence of a nearby gold film.
Lifetimes of the excited singlet state were evaluated in ordet to measure
directly the PMD at the molecules position. Triplet state lifetimes were
simultaneously determined by statistical analysis of the detection time of the
fluorescence photons. The observed singlet decay rates are in agreement with
the predicted PMD for molecules with different orientations. The triplet decay
rate is modified in a fashion correlated to the singlet decay rate. These
results show that PMD engineering can lead to an important suppression of the
fluorescence, introducing a novel aspect of the physical mechanism to enhance
fluorescence intensity in PMD-enhancing systems such as plasmonic devices.
