Abstract
Presently we report (i) excited state (exciton) propagation in a metal nanotrack over macroscopic distances, along with (ii) energy transfer from the nanotrack to adsorbed dye molecules. We measured the rates of both of these processes. We concluded that the effective speed of exciton propagation along the nanotrack is about 8 × 107 cm/s, much lower than the surface plasmon propagation speed of 1.4 × 1010 cm/s. We report that the transmitted energy yield depends on the nanotrack length, with the energy emitted from the surface much lower than the transmitted energy, i.e. the excited nanotrack mainly emits in its end zone. Our model thus assumes that the limiting step in the exciton propagation is the energy transfer between the originally prepared excitons and surface plasmons, with the rate constant of about 5.7 × 107 s−1. We also conclude that the energy transfer between the nanotrack and the adsorbed dye is limited by the excited-state lifetime in the nanotrack. Indeed, the measured characteristic buildup time of the dye emission is much longer than the characteristic energy transfer time to the dye of 81 ns, and thus must be determined by the excited state lifetime in the nanotrack. Indeed, the latter is very close to the characteristic buildup time of the dye emission. The data obtained are novel and very promising for a broad range of future applications.
Highlights
Extensive studies of quantum confinement (QC) in nanostructures of different nature and topology have begun over 110 years ago[1]
When the sample thickness is reduced to the nanometer scale, both electron waves become important for an adequate description of the electronic gas dynamics, transversal waves must be included
We explored dynamics of the energy transfer from the nanotrack excited at 630 nm, by immersing the nanotrack into a cell filled with oxazine-170 solutions at different concentrations
Summary
Extensive studies of quantum confinement (QC) in nanostructures of different nature and topology have begun over 110 years ago[1]. Light energy transfer along nanostructured waveguides was studied, with the waveguides constructed of a metal nanolayer deposited on the surface of a nanostructured dielectric[19,20,21], with the long-distance light energy transfer interpreted in terms of quasi-classical plasmon/polaron theory In this latter case, QC has to be considered in conjunction with the plasmon/polaron theory, as the longitudinal plasmon wave interacts with transversal waves generated by electronic oscillations in the direction normal to the waveguide axis, appearing due to QC. We must note that the simple models used until now do not describe the excited-state wave package propagation along the nanostructure, a more detailed theoretical approach is required Another important aspect that may be used to probe the excited state dynamics in nanofilms is their interaction with other energy acceptors, e.g. adsorbed dyes. We may use nanofilms to absorb photons, with the absorbed photon energy subsequently transferred along the film to the locations where it is utilized e.g. for producing electric current[27,28,29,30]
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