Engineered metallic nanostructures for dye fluorescence enhancement: Experiment and simulation

The author reports spectroscopic characterization, and simulation of metallic nanoantennas consisting of arrays of Au nanostructures for enhancement of dye fluorescence. The molecular dye fluorescence was significantly enhanced by near-field interaction between plasmons excited from the Au nanostructures and the molecule. The resulting fluorescence enhancement caused by the near-field enhancement was attributed to plasmon resonances and correlated to the extinction of the metal nanostructure. The author also performed numerical calculations of the Purcell enhancement factors, simulating the spontaneous emission enhancement of a dipole emitter positioned near the nanostructure, and these are in good agreement with the measured fluorescence enhancement.