Photoluminescence and Spectroelectrochemistry of Single Ag Nanowires

We present strong photoluminescence from single Ag nanowires (NWs), their disordered blinking behavior, and their dependence on substrate potential. The stochastic bursts (<10 ms) in the photoluminescence trajectories of single Ag NWs in air are observed and attributed to the photoactivated fluorescence silver clusters. The dynamic changes in the photoluminescence are analyzed using autocorrelation function, statistical analysis of the stochastic durations, and probability density function to reveal the disordered nature of the spontaneous photochemical reaction at each individual Ag NWs under laser irradiation. Stable PL is observed for single Ag NWs in alkaline electrolyte and is found to be highly dependent on the electrochemical potential. The PL from single Ag NWs is found to be weakly dependent on polarization direction of the incident light and strongly dependent on the interactions with adjacent NWs.