Plasmon-enhanced fluorescence in gold nanorod-quantum dot coupled systems

Plasmon-exciton coupling is of great importance to many optical devices and applications. One of the coupling manifestations is plasmon-enhanced fluorescence. Although this effect is demonstrated in numerous experimental and theoretical works, there are different particle shapes for which this effect is not fully investigated. In this work electrostatic complexes of gold nanorods and CdSe/CdZnS quantum dots were studied. Double-resonant gold nanorods have an advantage of the simultaneous enhancement of the absorption and emission when the plasmon bands match the excitation and fluorescence wavelengths of an emitter. A relationship between the concentration of quantum dots in the complexes and the enhancement factor was established. It was demonstrated that the enhancement factor is inversely proportional to the concentration of quantum dots. The maximal fluorescence enhancement by 10.8 times was observed in the complex with the smallest relative concentration of 2.5 quantum dots per rod and approximately 5 nm distance between them. Moreover, the influence of quantum dot location on the gold nanorod surface plays an important role. Theoretical study and experimental data indicate that only the position near the nanorod ends provides the enhancement. At the same time, the localization of quantum dots on the sides of the nanorods leads to the fluorescence quenching

Photoacoustic imaging of living mouse brain vasculature using hollow gold nanospheres

Photoacoustic tomography (PAT) also referred to as optoacoustic tomography (OAT) is a hybrid imaging modality that employs nonionizing optical radiation and ultrasonic detection. Here, we describe the application of a new class of optical contrast agents based on mesoscopic hollow gold nanospheres (HAuNS) to PAT. HAuNS are ∼40 nm in diameter with a hollow interior and consist of a thin gold wall. They display strong resonance absorption tuned to the near-infrared (NIR) range, with an absorption peak at 800 nm, whose photoacoustic efficiency is significantly greater than that of blood. Following surface conjugation with thiolated poly(ethylene glycol), the pegylated HAuNS (PEG-HAuNS) had distribution and elimination half-lives of 1.38 ± 0.38 and 71.82 ± 30.46 h, respectively. Compared with PAT images based on the intrinsic optical contrast in nude mice, the PAT images acquired within 2 h after intravenous administration of PEG-HAuNS showed the brain vasculature with greater clarity and detail. The image depicted brain blood vessels as small as ∼100 μm in diameter using PEG-HAuNS as contrast agents. Preliminary results showed no acute toxicity to the liver, spleen, or kidneys in mice following a single imaging dose of PEG-HAuNS. Our results indicate that PEG-HAuNS are promising contrast agents for PAT, with high spatial resolution and enhanced sensitivity

Possible nanoantenna control of chlorophyll dynamics for bioinspired photovoltaics

International audienceIn the context of using portions of a photosynthetic apparatus of green plants and photosynthesizing bacteria in bioinspired photovoltaic systems, we consider possible control of the chlorophyll excited state decay rate using nanoantennas in the form of a single metal and semiconductor nanoparticle. Since chlorophyll luminescence competes with electron delivery for chemical reactions chain and also to an external circuit, we examine possible excited state decay inhibition contrary to radiative rate enhancement. Both metal and semiconductor nanoparticles enable inhibition of radiative decay rate by one order of the magnitude as compared to that in vacuum, whereas a metal nanosphere cannot perform the overall decay inhibition since slowing down of radiative decay occurs only along with the similar growth of its nonradiative counterpart whereas a semiconductor nanoantenna is lossless. Additionally, at normal orientation of the emitter dipole moment to a nanoparticle surface, a silicon nanoparticle promotes enhancement of radiative decay by one order of the magnitude within the whole visible range. Our results can be used for other photochemical or photovoltaic processes, and strong radiative decay enhancement found for dielectric nanoantennas paves the way to radiative decays and light emitters engineering without non-radiative losses

Colloidal photoluminescent refractive index nanosensor using plasmonic effects

Fluorescence enhancement by metal nanostructures which is sensitive to refractive index n of an ambient medium is suggested as an operation principle of a novel refractive index sensor for liquids. Calculations are made for spherical and spheroidal Ag particles, and potential feasibility of sensitivity of the order of Δn=10-4 is demonstrated. Sensors of this type can be made fully colloidal with metal bodies deposited on a substrate or comprising a metal layer covering colloidal assembly of dielectric particles to serve as a test strip as well as placed on a fiber tip end to get local probing of refractive index in the tip-enhanced refractometry mode. Colloidal core-shell semiconductor nanocrystals may become the best candidates for this type of sensors whereas molecular probes may be affected by chemical properties of tested liquids

Enhancement of labeled alpha-fetoprotein antibodies and antigen-antibody complexes fluorescence with silver nanocolloids

A model immunoassay test system is proposed based on metal enhanced photoluminescence to analyze low concentrations of alpha-fetoprotein, a tumor marker. Antigen-antibody reaction was performed on polystyrene plates coated with silver nanoparticles to increase sensitivity of fluorescent immunoassay and signal-to-noise ratio as compared to silver-free system. The proposed test system model uses layer-by-layer assembly approach, LED excitation and nanowatt photodetection set-up, so it is characterized by smaller probe volume, fast analysis and simplicity. The proposed model system offers alpha-fetoprotein detection at concentrations used in clinical practice. Photostability and photoluminescence enhancement for labeled alpha-fetoprotein antibodies on a silver substrate were found to depend on antibodies concentration. Labeled antibodies photostability on substrates was found to deviate within 20% as compared to silver-free samples whereas photoluminescence intensity enhancement is typically in the range of 6-8 times.Published versio

Active magneto-plasmonics in hybrid metal-ferromagnet structures

Surface-plasmon-mediated confinement of optical fields holds great promise for on-chip miniaturization of all-optical circuits. Following successful demonstrations of passive nanoplasmonic devices active plasmonic systems have been designed to control plasmon propagation. This goal has been achieved either by coupling plasmons to optically active materials or by making use of transient optical nonlinearities in metals via strong excitation with ultrashort laser pulses. Here, we present a new concept in which the active optical component is a metal-ferromagnet-metal structure. It is based on active magneto-plasmonic microinterferometry, where the surface plasmon wave vector in a gold-ferromagnet-gold trilayer system is controlled using a weak external magnetic field. Application of this new technique allows measurement of the electromagnetic field distribution inside a metal at optical frequencies and with nanometre depth resolution. Significant modulation depth combined with possible all-optical magnetization reversal induced by femtosecond light pulses18 opens a route to ultrafast magneto-plasmonic switching

Nonresonant Surface-Enhanced Raman Scattering of ZnO Quantum Dots with Au and Ag Nanoparticles

International audiencePronounced 104-fold enhancement of Raman scattering has been obtained for ZnO nanocrystals on substrates coated with 50 nm Ag nanoparticles under nonresonant excitation with a commercial red-emitting laser. This makes feasible beyond 10–18 mole detection of ZnO nanocrystals with a commercial setup using a 0.1 mW continuous wave laser and can be purposefully used in analytical applications where conjugated nanocrystals serve as Raman markers. For Au-coated surfaces the enhancement is much lower and the heating effects in the course of Raman experiments are pronounced

Plasmon-Enhanced Ultraviolet Luminescence in Colloid Solutions and Nanostructures Based on Aluminum and ZnO Nanoparticles

Aluminum nanoparticles attract scientific interest as a promising low-cost material with strong plasmon resonance in the ultraviolet region, which can be used in various fields of photonics. In this paper, for the first time, ultraviolet luminescence of zinc oxide nanoparticles in colloid solutions and nanostructure films in the presence of plasmonic aluminum nanoparticles 60 nm in size with a metal core and an aluminum oxide shell were studied. Mixture colloids of ZnO and Al nanoparticles in isopropyl alcohol solution with concentrations from 0.022 to 0.44 g/L and 0.057 to 0.00285 g/L, correspondingly, were investigated. The enhancement of up to 300% of ZnO emission at 377 nm in colloids mixtures with metal nanoparticles due to formation of Al-ZnO complex agglomerates was achieved. Plasmon nanostructures with different configurations of layers, such as Al on the surface of ZnO, ZnO on Al, sandwich-like structure and samples prepared from a colloidal mixture of ZnO and Al nanoparticles, were fabricated by microplotter printing. We demonstrated that photoluminescence can be boosted 2.4-fold in nanostructures prepared from a colloidal mixture of ZnO and Al nanoparticles, whereas the sandwich-like structure gave only 1.1 times the amplification of luminescence. Calculated theoretical models of photoluminescence enhancement of ideal and weak emitters near aluminum nanoparticles of different sizes showed comparable results with the obtained experimental data