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Enhanced fluorescence emission from quantum dots on a photonic crystal surface

Nature Nanotechnology volume 2, pages 515–520 (2007)Cite this article

Abstract

Colloidal quantum dots display a wide range of novel optical properties that could prove useful for many applications in photonics. Here, we report the enhancement of fluorescence emission from colloidal quantum dots on the surface of two-dimensional photonic crystal slabs. The enhancement is due to a combination of high-intensity near fields and strong coherent scattering effects, which we attribute to leaky eigenmodes of the photonic crystal. By fabricating two-dimensional photonic crystal slabs that operate at visible wavelengths and engineering their leaky modes so that they overlap with the absorption and emission wavelengths of the quantum dots, we demonstrate that the fluorescence intensity can be enhanced by a factor of up to 108 compared with quantum dots on an unpatterned surface.

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Figure 1: Visible-wavelength two-dimensional PC slab design and fabrication.
Figure 2: Leaky mode dispersion and efficiency.
Figure 3: Near-field intensity calculations.
Figure 4: Leaky mode dispersion showing the possibility of enhanced extraction for all polarizations and directions of light.
Figure 5: Enhanced fluorescence emission from QDs on the PC surface.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the University of Illinois College of ACES Experimental Station, SRU Biosystems, the Soybean Disease Biotechnology Center and the National Science Foundation (BES 0427657). Part of this work was carried out in the Center for Microanalysis of Materials, University of Illinois, which is partially supported by the US Department of Energy under grant DEFG02-91-ER45439. The authors would like to thank the staff of the Micro and Nanotechnology Laboratory and colleagues from the Nano Sensors Group for their suggestions and input.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Nano Sensors Group, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 208 North Wright Street, Urbana, 61801, Illinois, USA

    Nikhil Ganesh, Wei Zhang, Patrick C. Mathias & Brian T. Cunningham

  2. Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 1304 West Green Street, Urbana, 61801, Illinois, USA

    Nikhil Ganesh, Wei Zhang & Viktor Malyarchuk

  3. Micro and Nanotechnology Laboratory, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 208 North Wright Street, Urbana, 61801, Illinois, USA

    Edmond Chow

  4. Frederick Seitz Materials Research Laboratory, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 104 South Goodwin Avenue, Urbana, 61801, Illinois, USA

    J. A. N. T. Soares

  5. Department of Physics, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 1110 West Green Street, Urbana, 61801, Illinois, USA

    Adam D. Smith

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  1. Nikhil Ganesh
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Correspondence to Brian T. Cunningham.

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Brian Cunningham is an officer and director of SRU Biosystems.

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Ganesh, N., Zhang, W., Mathias, P. et al. Enhanced fluorescence emission from quantum dots on a photonic crystal surface. Nature Nanotech 2, 515–520 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1038/nnano.2007.216

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