Spectral Control of Plasmonic Emission Enhancement from Quantum Dots near Single Silver Nanoprisms

Abstract

The near-field effects of plasmonic optical antennas are being explored in applications ranging from biosensors to solar cells. We demonstrate that photoluminescence emission enhancement from CdSe quantum dots (QDs) can be obtained in the absence of any excitation enhancement near single silver nanoprisms. The spectral dependence of the radiative and nonradiative decay rate of the QDs closely follows the silver nanoparticle plasmon scattering spectrum. Using both experiment and theory we show that, in the absence of excitation enhancement, the ratio of radiative to nonradiative decay rate enhancement is proportional to the silver nanoparticle scattering efficiency. These results provide guidelines both for separating excitation and emission enhancement effects in sensing and device applications and for tailoring emission enhancement effects using plasmonic nanostructures.

Nanoantenna enhanced emission of light-harvesting complex 2: the role of resonance, polarization, and radiative and non-radiative rates

“…This non-radiative rate enhancement can be explained by the increased spectral overlap between the fluorescence of the emitter and the absorption of the metal, leading to more efficient energy transfer to the gold. 37,38 To explore these findings further we performed finitedifference time-domain simulations 26 of the antenna-emitter system (FDTD Solutions, Lumerical). The LH2 with its 27 BChl is modeled as a single point dipole source.…”

“…In general, for simpler fluorophores, only a few experimental studies have investigated this 14,35,36 and quantified the specific contribution of the radiative and non-radiative decay rate enhancement. 25,37,38 Here, we report the complete characterization (polarization, spectra and lifetime) of the enhanced emission of light-harvesting complex 2 (LH2) from purple photosynthetic bacteria when coupled to a gold nanorod antenna. Antennae of increasing lengths were used to investigate how the resonance wavelength affects these properties.…”

Nanoparticles and Fluorescence

“…Chen et al [148] reported excitation enhancement of CdSe quantum dots by single metal nanoparticles, whereas emission enhancement of CdSe quantum dots due to silver nanoprisms has been observed by Munechika et al [149]. Enhancement of upconversion emission in NaYF 4 :Er, Yb by silver nanowires [150] and gold nanospheres [151] has been observed.…”

Upconversion Nanoparticle-Based Nanocomposites

“…3 that metal nanostructures (i.e., plasmonics substrates) can efficiently collect light and enhance the intensity due to surface plasmon resonances (SPR). These effects have been widely used for enhancing various optical processes, such as Raman scattering and downconversion luminescence [141][142][143][144][145]. So, in this section, we focus on the fabrication of UCNPs-metal nanocomposites, which is an important way to enhance the upconversion luminescence according to the SPR effect of metals [146][147][148][149][150][151][152].…”