Spectral selectivity of plasmonic interactions between individual up-converting nanocrystals and spherical gold nanoparticles

Dawid Piatkowski*, Mikołaj K. Schmidt, Magdalena Twardowska, Marcin Nyk, Javier Aizpurua, Sebastian Maćkowski

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

4 Citations (Scopus)
53 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

We experimentally demonstrate strong spectral selectivity of plasmonic interaction that occurs between α-NaYF4:Er3+/Yb3+ nanocrystals, which feature two emission bands, and spherical gold nanoparticles, with plasmon frequency resonant with one of the emission bands. Spatially–resolved luminescence intensity maps acquired for individual nanocrystals, together with microsecond luminescence lifetime images, show two qualitatively different effects that result from the coupling between plasmon excitations in metallic nanoparticles and emitting states of the nanocrystals. On the one hand, we observe nanocrystals, whose emission intensity is strongly enhanced for both resonant and non-resonant bands with respect to the plasmon resonance. Importantly, this increase is accompanied with shortening of luminescence decays times. In contrast, a significant number of nanocrystals exhibits almost complete quenching of the emission resonant with the plasmon resonance of gold nanoparticles. Theoretical analysis indicates that such an effect can occur for emitters placed at distances of about 5 nm from gold nanoparticles. While under these conditions, both transitions experience significant increases of the radiative emission rates due to the Purcell effect, the non-radiative energy transfer between resonant bands results in strong quenching, which in that situation nullifies the enhancement.

Original languageEnglish
Article number905
Pages (from-to)1-10
Number of pages10
JournalMaterials
Volume10
Issue number8
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 4 Aug 2017
Externally publishedYes

Bibliographical note

Copyright the Author(s) 2017. Version archived for private and non-commercial use with the permission of the author/s and according to publisher conditions. For further rights please contact the publisher.

Keywords

  • Confocal microscopy
  • Plasmonics
  • Up-conversion

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