Atherosclerotic plaques constitute the primary cause of heart attack and stroke. However, we still lack a clear identification of the plaques. Here, we evaluate the feasibility of scanning acoustic microscopy (SAM) and time-resolved fluorescence spectroscopy (TRFS) in atherosclerotic plaque characterization. We perform dual-modality microscopic imaging of the human carotid atherosclerotic plaques. We first show that the acoustic impedance values are statistically higher in calcified regions compared with the collagen-rich areas. We then use CdTe/CdS quantum dots for imaging the atherosclerotic plaques by TRFS and show that fluorescence lifetime values of the quantum dots in collagen-rich areas are notably different from the ones in calcified areas. In summary, both modalities are successful in differentiating the calcified regions from the collagen-rich areas within the plaques indicating that these techniques are confirmatory and may be combined to characterize atherosclerotic plaques in the future.

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In this paper, CdTe quantum dots (QDs)doped single electrospun polymer nanofibers are partially coated with gold nanoparticles to form distinct hybrid photonic-plasmonic nanoresonators to investigate the critical role of the cavity-confined hybrid mode on the modification of the spontaneous emission dynamics of the fluorescent emitters in low-Q photonic cavities. A total enhancement factor of 11.2 is measured via a time-resolved experimental technique, which shows that there is an increase of about three times in the spontaneous emission rate for the QDsdoped gold nanoparticle-decorated nanofibers as they are compared with those uncoated ones. The physical mechanism affecting the spontaneous emission rate of the encapsulated QDs in such a hybrid photonic-plasmonic nanoresonator is explained to be due to regeneration of the mode field in the nanofiber cavity upon the interaction of the dipoles with the surface plasmons of distinctive gold nanoparticles that surround the outer surface of the nanofiber.

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Fluorescent CsPbBr3 nanowires are uniformly integrated into a porous polystyrene matrix in the form of microfibers to investigate the changes in their spontaneous emission rate. Cylindrical hollow nanocavities, ranging from 75 to 160 nm in diameter, are grown on the surface of the polymer microfibers during the fabrication process, which allow coupling light that is emitted from the excited CsPbBr3 nanowires. Time-resolved experiments elucidate that the spontaneous emission rate of the perovskite nanowires is observed to increase by a factor of 4.9, upon coupling of the excited optical modes into the nanocavities, which is demonstrated to be in good agreement with our theoretical calculations.

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Strongly concentrated optical fields around a metal nanoparticle in the close vicinity of a dipole noticeably facilitate dramatic changes in the localized density of states due to hybrid photonic-plasmonic mode couplings as compared to that of the pure cavity mode fields. Significant variations of the field intensity in the presence of the metal nanoparticle elucidate enhanced light-matter interaction in a hybrid structure. The enhancement factor of the light-matter interaction is studied through the single-atom cooperativity parameter, which is directly proportional to the ratio of the fluorescence lifetimes of the off-resonant and on-resonant emission. A compact and cost-effective hybrid device, which includes a microfiber cavity, supporting whispering gallery modes, and a well-defined solid nanostructure, consisting of a gold nanoparticle core, overcoated by a silica shell, and decorated with CdS/CdSe quantum dots, is demonstrated to offer an outstanding potential for the enhancement of light-matter interaction. Surface plasmons of a gold nanoparticle, placed inside a hollow cylindrical nanostructure at the surface of a microfiber, are activated upon excitation of the dipoles of the quantum emitters, which are on-resonance with the whispering gallery mode. Time-resolved experiments demonstrate that the single-atom cooperativity parameter of the quantum dots is enhanced by a factor of about 4.8 in the presence of the gold nanoparticle being simultaneously in strong interaction with the cavity mode field and the metal nanoparticle's surface plasmons.