Monte-Carlo Modeling of Plasmon-Mediated Ion-Ion Energy Transfer

Abstract

Energy transfer between donor and acceptor ions is an important phenomenon in phosphor applications. In a quantum electrodynamic formulation of the energy transfer process, the donor-acceptor interaction is mediated by photons. In the presence of a metal, however, donor-acceptor interactions may also be mediated by surface plasmons. For donor-acceptor pairs near a smooth planar metallic surface, the probability of surface plasmon-mediated transfer has been estimated, and depends on both the donor-acceptor distance and the distance of each ion from the metallic surface. With the goal of designing an experiment to directly observe surface plasmon-mediated energy transfer, we simulated plasmon-mediated energy transfer in a solid using Monte Carlo methods. Using MatLab, we constructed a solid doped with randomly placed acceptors and donors, simulated the energy transfer process, and plotted the donor decay curves. We show that the plasmon-mediated transfer rate can be comparable to the radiative decay rate, and that the shape of the donor decay curves in plasmon-mediated transfer differs greatly from those resulting from Foerster-Dexter energy transfer. Thus, for a well-designed experiment, it should be possible to unambiguously identify the role of surface plasmons in the energy transfer process.