Planar plasmonic nanocavity for efficient enhancement of photoluminescence of molecular emitters

Abstract Effects of plasmonic gap mode formation due to coupling between metal nanoparticles and thin metal film separated by thin dielectric luminescent film-spacer (gap) have been studied by means of light extinction and photoluminescence in three-layer planar Au NPs monolayer/shellac-dye film/Au film nanostructure with spacer thickness varied in the range 8–47 nm. The 3-fold enhancement of light extinction and 90 nm red shift of the plasmon mode have been observed in extinction spectra. The 37-fold enhancement of dye photoluminescence and the significant (48 nm) red shift of dye photoluminescence band have been observed for Au NPs monolayer/shellac-dye film/Au film nanostructure in comparison with bare shellac-dye film for the spacer thickness of 8 nm. The decrease of the spacer thickness causes the increase of the enhancement factor of dye photoluminescence indicating the strengthening of the gap mode field. FDTD calculations of the dependence of the intensity of the field of gap mode on the gap thickness have demonstrated good quantitative agreement with experimental data that proves the key role of gap mode in the enhancement of the electromagnetic field in planar metal NPs monolayer/dielectric film/metal film plasmonic nanocavity nanostructures. The variation of the gap thickness provides the possibility to tune controllably the spectral position and enhancement factor of the light emission from the molecular emitters located in the gap that can be used in the novel nanophotonics devices and for highly sensitive detection of the single molecules.