Exploring the Relationship between Plasmon Damping and Luminescence in Lithographically Prepared Gold Nanorods

Abstract

In order to engineer plasmonic structures for specific applications, the energy decay pathways upon photon absorption must be understood. One of the decay pathways is the emission of light. In this work, we explore the effects of plasmon damping on the photonic density of states and resulting Purcell enhancement factor for gold nanorods and their relationship to the luminescence quantum yield. We compare the correlated scattering, photoluminescence, and quantum yield of different sizes of lithographically prepared nanorods. We recover a similar aspect ratio dependence for lithographically prepared nanorods as has been previously observed for colloidal rods. We change the damping experienced by the nanorods by removing the metal adhesion layer and compare to chemically synthesized nanorods of similar size. We also develop a gradual annealing method to decrease the damping experienced by our lithographically prepared nanorods by removing internal scattering defects. In all cases, we find a strong positive correlation between the degree of damping, expressed quantitatively through the resonance Quality Factor, and the luminescence quantum yield: as the Quality Factor increases the quantum yield follows in a roughly linear relationship. Simulations illustrate a corresponding increase in the photonic density of states as the Q-Factor increases.

Plasmonic metal nanostructures with extremely small features: new effects, fabrication and applications

“…Lawrence J. Tauzin et al explored the relationship between plasmon damping and PL in Au nanorods. The damping resulting from poor crystallinity in nanostructures and adhesion layers can be quantitatively linked to the decrease in PL quantum yield, and annealing process can improve the emission intensity of lithographically prepared Au nanorods 107.…”

Polysorbate- and DNA-Mediated Synthesis and Strong, Stable, and Tunable Near-Infrared Photoluminescence of Plasmonic Long-Body Nanosnowmen

“…The absorption cross-section values from the Au–Ag LNS with various junctions are not clearly different, indicating similar hot-carrier generation efficiencies. Therefore, the junction thickness-dependent PL intensity originates from the scattering cross-section that determines the photonic density of states, which enhances the radiative recombination of hot carriers. ,, The maximum value of EM field for each junction thickness at an incident wavelength of 785 nm is shown in SI Figure S6e. The thinnest junction formed by poly A showed the strongest SERS signal due to the large value of EM field.…”

“…It was previously shown that the PL from plasmonic NPs is related to the plasmon scattering that determines the photonic density of states. 13,40,49 We calculated the scattering cross-section of Au− Ag LNSs and found that the scattering cross-section increased when the junction was thicker (SI Figure S6d). These results are consistent with the higher total PL intensity from the thicker junction of the Au−Ag LNSs.…”

Unravelling Competing Oxidation Mechanisms in Single Cu Nanoparticles

“…Moreover, slight geometrical differences between the experiment and the model, e.g. defects formed during oxidation, are not included in the simulations 42,43 .…”