title: Enhancement of Resonant Energy Transfer Due to an Evanescent Wave from the Metal.
abstract: The high density of evanescent modes in the vicinity of a metal leads to enhancement of the near-field Förster resonant energy transfer (FRET) rate. We present a classical approach to calculate the FRET rate based on the dyadic Green's function of an arbitrary dielectric environment and consider the nonlocal limit of material permittivity in the case of the metallic half-space and thin film. In a dimer system, we find that the FRET rate is enhanced due to shared evanescent photon modes bridging a donor and an acceptor. Furthermore, a general expression for the FRET rate for multimer systems is derived. The presence of a dielectric environment and the path interference effect enhance the transfer rate, depending on the combination of distance and geometry.
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, Northwestern University , 2145 Sheridan Road, Evanston, Illinois 60208, United States.
authors.forename: Amrit
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Poudel
authors.affiliation: Center of Nanomaterials for Renewable Energy, State Key Laboratory of Electrical Insulation and Power Equipment, School of Electrical Engineering, Xi'an Jiaotong University , 99 Yanxiang Road, Xi'an 710054, China.
authors.forename: Xin
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, Northwestern University , 2145 Sheridan Road, Evanston, Illinois 60208, United States.
authors.forename: Mark A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Ratner