Emission enhancement of tris(8-quinolinolato)aluminum with Al nanotriangle arrays fabricated by nanosphere lithography

Abstract We report on the enhancement effect of metal nanotriangles (NTs) on the photoluminescence and its time-resolved dynamics of tris(8-quinolinolato) aluminum (Alq3). Regularly arranged Al NTs arrays were fabricated on the quartz substrate by means of nanosphere lithography. The absorption peaks corresponded to the localized surface plasmon (LSP) resonance of Al NTs were observed within a visible light region, and it was significantly shifted towards longer wavelength as increasing refractive index of the covering medium. The typical resonance wavelength of LSP of Alq3/Al NTs fabricated with 350 nm-PSt beads was 600 nm. From the PL measurement 2.6-fold PL enhancement was observed in Alq3 with Al NTs at room temperature, whereas the 4.4-fold PL enhancement was observed for Ag NTs with same size. According to the time-resolved PL data, the coupling of LSP with the excitation light field mainly contribute to the observed emission enhancement for the Al NTs, whereas the emission enhancement by Ag NTs can be originated from the direct coupling of LSP and emission which was suggested from the large contribution of short lifetime component.