Localized surface plasmon resonances excited in metallic nanoparticles confine and enhance electromagnetic fields at the nanoscale. This is particularly pronounced in dimers made from two closely spaced nanoparticles. When quantum emitters, such as dyes, are placed in the gap of those dimers, their absorption and emission characteristics can be modified. Both processes have to be considered when aiming to enhance the fluorescence from the quantum emitters. This is particularly challenging for dimers, since the electromagnetic properties and the enhanced fluorescence sensitively depend on the distance between the nanoparticles. Here, we use a layer-by-layer method to precisely control the distances in such systems. We consider a dye layer deposited on top of an array of gold nanoparticles or integrated into a central position of a double array of gold nanoparticles. We study the effect of the spatial arrangement and the average distance on the plasmon-enhanced fluorescence. We found a maximum of a 99-fold increase in the fluorescence intensity of the dye layer sandwiched between two gold nanoparticle arrays. The interaction of the dye layer with the plasmonic system also causes a spectral shift in the emission wavelengths and a shortening of the fluorescence life times. Our work paves the way for large-scale, high throughput, and low-cost self-assembled functionalized plasmonic systems that can be used as efficient light sources.
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21 December 2015
Research Article|
December 18 2015
Fluorescence enhancement in large-scale self-assembled gold nanoparticle double arrays
M. Chekini;
M. Chekini
1Département de Chimie Physique,
Université de Genève
, 1211 Genève, Switzerland
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R. Filter;
R. Filter
2Institute of Condensed Matter Theory and Solid State Optics, Abbe Center of Photonics,
Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena
, D-07743 Jena, Germany
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J. Bierwagen;
J. Bierwagen
1Département de Chimie Physique,
Université de Genève
, 1211 Genève, Switzerland
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A. Cunningham;
A. Cunningham
1Département de Chimie Physique,
Université de Genève
, 1211 Genève, Switzerland
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C. Rockstuhl;
C. Rockstuhl
3Institute of Nanotechnology,
Karlsruhe Institute of Technology
, D-76021 Karlsruhe, Germany
4Institute of Theoretical Solid State Physics,
Karlsruhe Institute of Technology
, D-76131 Karlsruhe, Germany
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a)
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed. Electronic mail: Thomas.Buergi@unige.ch
J. Appl. Phys. 118, 233107 (2015)
Article history
Received:
July 01 2015
Accepted:
December 03 2015
Citation
M. Chekini, R. Filter, J. Bierwagen, A. Cunningham, C. Rockstuhl, T. Bürgi; Fluorescence enhancement in large-scale self-assembled gold nanoparticle double arrays. J. Appl. Phys. 21 December 2015; 118 (23): 233107. https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4938025
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