The influence of plasmon excitations in spherical gold nanoparticles on the optical properties of a light-harvesting complex 2 (LH2) from the purple bacteria Rhodopseudomonas palustris has been studied. Systematic analysis is facilitated by controlling the thickness of a silica layer between Au nanoparticles and LH2 complexes. Fluorescence of LH2 complexes features substantial increase when these complexes are separated by 12 nm from the gold nanoparticles. At shorter distances, non-radiative quenching leads to a decrease of fluorescence emission. The enhancement of fluorescence originates predominantly from an increase of absorption of pigments comprising the LH2 complex.
REFERENCES
1.
S.
Maier
, Plasmonics: Fundamentals and Applications
(Springer Science + Business Media LLC
, New York
, 2007
).2.
L.
Novotny
and N. F.
van Hulst
, Nature Photon.
5
, 83
(2011
).3.
P.
Anger
, P.
Bharadwaj
, and L.
Novotny
, Phys. Rev. Lett.
96
, 113002
(2006
).4.
M.
Lunz
, A. L.
Bradley
, W. Y.
Chen
, V. A.
Gerard
, S. J.
Byrne
, Y. K.
Gun’ko
, V.
Lesnyak
, and N.
Gaponik
, Phys. Rev. B
81
, 205316
(2010
).5.
H. A.
Atwater
and A.
Polman
, Nature Mater.
9
, 205
(2010
).6.
P.
Bharadwaj
, P.
Anger
, and L.
Novotny
, Nanotechnology
18
, 044017
(2007
).7.
R. E.
Blankenship
, Molecular Mechanisms of Photosynthesis
(Wiley-Blackwell
, Oxford, United Kingdom
, 2002
).8.
A. O.
Govorov
, Adv. Mat.
20
, 4330
(2008
).9.
S.
Mackowski
, J. Phys.: Condens. Matter
22
, 193102
(2010
).10.
I.
Carmeli
, I.
Liberman
, L.
Kraverski
, Z.
Fan
, A. O.
Govorov
, G.
Markovich
, and S.
Richter
, Nano Lett.
10
, 2069
(2010
).11.
T. H. P.
Brotosudarmo
, R.
Kunz
, P.
Böhm
, A. T.
Gardiner
, V.
Moulisová
, R. J.
Cogdell
, and J.
Köhler
, Biophys. J.
97
, 1491
(2009
).12.
A. M.
van Oijen
, M.
Ketelaars
, J.
Köhler
, T. J.
Aartsma
, and J.
Schmidt
, Science
285
, 400
(1999
).13.
S.
Wörmke
, S.
Mackowski
, T. H. P.
Brotosudarmo
, A.
Garcia
, P.
Braun
, H.
Scheer
, E.
Hofmann
, and C.
Bräuchle
, Appl. Phys. Lett.
90
, 193901
(2007
).© 2011 American Institute of Physics.
2011
American Institute of Physics
You do not currently have access to this content.
