Fluorescence in the presence of metallic hole arrays

Abstract

We show that the transmission of light through metallic hole arrays supported by a glass substrate can be tuned by depositing a controlled number of LangmuirBlodgett layers on top of the hole array. Enhanced transmission is achieved when the number of overlayers is such that the surface plasmon-polariton modes on the two sides of the metal hole array have matched wavevectors. Dye molecules introduced into some of these overlayers allow us to explore the relationship between molecular fluorescence and the transmission properties of the structure, through measurement of the fluorescence lifetime of the molecules. We find there to be little change in the fluorescence lifetime between enhanced and non-enhanced transmission regimes and offer an explanation of our findings in terms of changes in the photonic mode density.

Long- and Short-Range Ordered Gold Nanoholes as Large-Area Optical Transducers in Sensing Applications

“…The top-down, unconventional lithographic techniques described above are particularly interesting for the fabrication of nanoplasmonics systems (i.e., metal nanoantennas and nanohole (NH) arrays) [29][30][31][32][33]. In particular, metallic NH arrays are being widely studied to get a basic understanding and optimization of their optical, as well as their applications in several fields (for instance, sub-wavelength photolithography [34,35], nonlinear optics (interferometric plasmonic lensing) [36,37], surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) [38,39], surface-enhanced fluorescence spectroscopy [40][41][42], and especially as chemical sensors and biosensors [28,[43][44][45][46][47]).…”

Super-transmission of light through subwavelength annular aperture arrays in metallic films: Spectral analysis and near-field optical images in the visible range

“…It has already been shown that enhanced light transmission could be achieved through a subwavelength array of cylindrical holes in metallic films [1][2][3][4]. This type of nanostructure offers many interesting applications: nanophotonics [5,6], nanophotolithography [7,8], fluorescence [9,10] and chemical sensors [11]. In order to increase the transmission, Baida and Van Labeke recently proposed a structure which consists of an array of nanometric coaxial cavities in a real metal (gold for instance) [12][13][14].…”

Finite difference time domain study of light transmission through multihole nanostructures in metallic film

“…The EM field enhancement can be even greater in a nanostructure where the light is efficiently confined at the subwavelength holes. Such enhancement has allowed potential application in many different areas, such as sensing [3], integrated nano/microphotonics [4], plasmonic photolithography [5], fluorescence microscopy [6], surface enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) [7], second harmonic generation (SGH) [8], and supercontinuum generation (SCG) [9].…”