Enhancing Gold by Gold: Plasmon Enhanced Luminescence in Gold Nanocluster - Gold Nanorod Nanoallotropes
Abstrakt
Despite the many advantages over conventional semiconductor quantum dots, the application potential of photoluminescent gold nanoclusters is limited by their relatively low quantum yield. Plasmonic enhancement is a common strategy for improving the performance of weak fluorophores, yet in the case of gold nanoclusters this method is still poorly explored.
Here we present a detailed study of combining gold nanoclusters with plasmonic gold nanorods in a compact core-shell nanostructure with significantly enhanced photoluminescence. The extraordinary degree of control over the structural parameters of the hybrid nanoparticles allows us to study the effect of several parameters such as excitation wavelength, nanocluster-nanorod distance, and relative loading of nanoclusters per single nanorod.
The highest photoluminescence intensity enhancement (4.4x) was obtained when excitation wavelength matched the strong longitudinal plasmonic band of gold nanorods and when the separation distance between nanoclusters and nanorods was decreased to 5 nm. The presented results are relevant not only for application of AuNCs in optoelectronic devices, but also in photosensitization and catalysis.