title: Giant photoluminescence enhancement in SiC nanocrystals by resonant semiconductor exciton-metal surface plasmon coupling.
abstract: We report giant fluorescence enhancement in SiC nanocrystals (NCs) embedded in a sodium dodecyl sulfonate dielectric medium by proximately contacted Ag nanoparticles. The enhancement in integrated fluorescence intensity reaches an astonishing 176-fold under 360 nm excitation (53.3-fold enhancement in emission maximum intensity). Finite-element simulation indicates that the strong resonant coupling between the excited SiC NCs and localized surface plasmons of the Ag nanoparticles plays a dominant role in determining fluorescence enhancement. In contrast, the absorption enhancement caused by light concentration around the Ag nanoparticles makes only a slight contribution to the overall enhancement. Our result opens the possibility of applications of these highly enhanced fluorescent SiC NCs in diverse areas such as sensing, optoelectronics and life sciences.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics, Southeast University, Nanjing 211189, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Dejian
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Dai
authors.forename: Zhenggao
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Dong
authors.forename: Jiyang
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Fan
mesh_terms: D017554:Carbon Compounds, Inorganic / Q000737:chemistry*; D003198:Computer Simulation; D008027:Light; D008163:Luminescent Measurements / Q000379:methods*; D053768:Metal Nanoparticles / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000648:ultrastructure; D008856:Microscopy, Fluorescence / Q000379:methods*; D008956:Models, Chemical; D010316:Particle Size; D012542:Scattering, Radiation; D017655:Silicon Compounds / Q000737:chemistry*; D012834:Silver / Q000737:chemistry*; D020349:Surface Plasmon Resonance / Q000379:methods*; D013499:Surface Properties
chemical_list: D017554:Carbon Compounds, Inorganic; D017655:Silicon Compounds; D012834:Silver; C022088:silicon carbide