Fast spontaneous emission and high F\"orster resonance energy transfer rate in hybrid organic/inorganic plasmonic nanostructures

Abstract

We report an experimental study of the plasmon-assisted spontaneous emission and the F\"orster resonance energy transfer between organic molecules and semiconductor colloidal quantum dots. The localized plasmonic field in the nanogap between a gold nano-popcorn's tips and a 5-nm separated gold film supports high photonic density of states and provides pathways for the light-matter interaction mechanisms. We demonstrate that, besides the total spontaneous emission rate enhancement factor up to 66 for quantum dots and molecules, the F\"orster resonance energy transfer efficiency and rate constant are simultaneously modified. While the energy transfer efficiency is reduced from 84 to 35 per cent due to the non-radiative quenching effect and fast donor spontaneous emission rate, the energy transfer rate constant is significantly increased from 4 to 20 ns-1. Our results have quantitatively elucidated decay mechanisms that are important toward understanding and controlling of the light-matter interaction at the nanoscale.