Plasmonic Enhancement of Nanophosphor Upconversion Luminescence in Au Nanohole Arrays

• Published in: ACS nano Vol. 7; no. 8; pp. 7186 - 7192
• Main Authors: Saboktakin, Marjan, Ye, Xingchen, Chettiar, Uday K, Engheta, Nader, Murray, Christopher B, Kagan, Cherie R
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States American Chemical Society 27.08.2013
• Subjects: Absorption; Arrays; Biosensing Techniques; Colloids - chemistry; Computation; Computer Simulation; Excitation; Finite Element Analysis; Luminescence; Luminescent Measurements; Microscopy, Electron, Scanning; Microscopy, Electron, Transmission; Nanoparticles - chemistry; Nanostructure; Nanotechnology - methods; Optics and Photonics; Plasmonics; Silver - chemistry; Surface Properties; Upconversion; Wavelengths; lanthanide; squeegee method; upconversion; nanohole array; plasmonically enhanced luminescence; nanophosphor
• ISSN: 1936-0851; 1936-086X
• DOI: 10.1021/nn402598e

Arrays of subwavelength holes (nanoholes) in Au films were computationally designed, fabricated, and used as templates to localize and enhance the luminescence of upconversion nanophosphors (UCNPs)hexagonal phase NaYF4 doped with Yb3+ and Er3+. The dimensions of nanohole Au arrays were designed to accept only a single UCNP upon particle filling and with a periodicity to be resonant with the excitation wavelength of the upconversion. Frequency-dependent luminescence enhancements of up to 35-fold and a concomitant shortening of the UCNP luminescence rise time were observed, consistent with simulations of plasmonic enhancement of the UCNP absorption.