Large molecular fluorescence enhancement by a nanoaperture with plasmonic corrugations

Abstract

We investigate the influence of circular corrugations surrounding a central nanoaperture to further enhance the fluorescence count rate per emitter and control its emission directionality. Adding a single corrugation already allows to significantly increase the fluorescence signal as compared to a bare nanoaperture. A complete fluorescence characterization quantifies the excitation and emission gains contributing to the fluorescence enhancement process as the number of corrugations is increased.

Mixed metal zero-mode guides (ZMWs) for tunable fluorescence enhancement

“…Thus, excitation light does not propagate through the wells but creates an evanescent wave at the entrance of the wells that limits the excitation volume to regions just inside the aperture. 33,34 The photophysical properties of uorophores isolated in ZMWs can also be altered through interactions with the metal structure. These interactions can affect both excitation and emission processes.…”

Unveiling the Origin of Third Harmonic Generation in Hybrid ITO–Plasmonic Crystals

“…In recent years, the development of functional nanoscale elements such as plasmonic antennas, transducers between free radiation and localized energy [4,5] , has led to major advances in various research fields including single molecule detection [6][7][8] , directive nanosources of light [9][10][11] , vibrational spectroscopy [12][13][14] and nonlinear interactions at the nanoscale [15][16][17] . For the latter, while the enhanced local fields created by plasmonic structures can be exploited for upconverting light at the nanoscale and for ultrafast processing of optical signals [18][19] , their opacity prevents exploiting phase matching in order to reach high nonlinear emission, which severely limits their practical use.…”

Plasmonic antennas and zero‐mode waveguides to enhance single molecule fluorescence detection and fluorescence correlation spectroscopy toward physiological concentrations

“…Corrugated apertures have been reported to provide high fluorescence enhancement together with beaming of the fluorescence light into a narrow cone . The fluorescence light from single molecules can thus be efficiently collected with a low numerical aperture objective, releasing the need for complex high NA objectives.…”