Plasmonic Enhancement of Dye Fluorescence in Polymer/Metal Nanocomposites

Abstract

The effect of the plasmonic enhancement of dye fluorescence in poly(vinyl butyral) films containing Ag/SiO₂ core-shell nanoparticles has been thoroughly studied. It has been shown that the magnitude of this effect can be quite large (up to 5 times) even for a dye having a very high quantum yield (coumarin 7). Therewith, it substantially depends on the size and concentration of Ag/SiO₂ particles and the quantum yield of a dye. The results obtained are discussed with involvement of mechanisms reported in the literature for plasmonic enhancement of fluorescence of dyes characterized by high and low quantum yields.