Plasmonic emission enhancement of colloidal quantum dots in the presence of bimetallic nanoparticles

Abstract

We studied plasmonic features of bimetallic nanostructures consisting of gold nanoisland cores semi-coated with a chromium layer and explored how they influence emission of CdSe/ZnS quantum dots. We showed that, compared with chromium-covered glass substrates without the gold cores, the bimetallic nanostructures could significantly enhance the emission of the quantum dots. We studied the impact of the excitation intensity and thickness of the chromium layer on this process and utilized numerical means to identify the mechanisms behind it. Our results suggest that when the chromium layer is thin, the enhancement process is the result of the bimetallic plasmonic features of the nanostructures. As the chromium layer becomes thick, the impact of the gold cores is screened and the enhancement mostly happens mostly via the field enhancement of chromium nanoparticles in the absence of significant energy transfer from the quantum dots to these nanoparticles.