Enhancing and quenching luminescence with gold nanoparticle films: the influence of substrate on the luminescent properties

Abstract

Gold nanoparticle (AuNP) films were sputtered over glass and aluminum substrates to enhance optically stimulated luminescence (OSL), a luminescent technique employed for radiation detection, from x-ray irradiated NaCl nanocrystals. The AuNP films deposited over glass led to enhanced-OSL emission, whereas the AuNP films deposited on aluminum substrates quenched the OSL emission. The enhanced-OSL intensity is proportional to the optical density of the film's plasmon resonance band at the stimulation wavelength. For the case of the AuNP/aluminum films, the luminescence quenching diminishes, and OSL intensity partially recovers upon increasing the distance between the AuNPs and the aluminum substrates, and between the luminescent nanocrystals and the AuNP films. These results suggest that plasmonic interactions between the emitter nanocrystals, the localized surface plasmons (LSP) of the AuNPs, and the substrate are responsible for the OSL enhancement and quenching. In this sense, the substrate dictates whether LSP relaxation occurs by radiative or non-radiative transisitions, leading to enhanced or quenched OSL, respectively. Therefore, besides showing that AuNP films can enhance and/or tune the sensitivity of luminescent radiation detectors, and demonstrating OSL as a new technique to investigate mechanisms of plasmon-enhanced luminescence, these results bring insights on how substrates strongly modify the optical properties of AuNP films.