Heterogeneous Nanostructures for Plasmonic Interaction with Luminescence and Quantitative Surface-enhanced Raman Spectroscopy

NIR-to-visible up-conversion nanomaterials have been investigated in many promising applications including next-generation displays, solar cells, and biological labels. When doped with different trivalent lanthanide ions, NaYF4 nanoparticles can produce up-converted emission from visible to infra-red wavelengths. However, the quantum yield of this class of materials is low. Noble metals in the vicinity of the phosphor can increase the phosphorescence by local field enhancement due to plasmonic resonances, and by modification of the radiative rate of the phosphor. Most previous studies have investigated the phenomenon by placing nanophosphors onto a metal substrate, or by fabrication of nano structures with spacers such as polymers, dielectric materials (silica). By contrast, we have studied the interaction between the luminescence and the surface plasmon using a core-shell type nanostructure where a uniform shell of silver is shown to grown on doped-NaYF4 nanophosphors by Ostwald ripening. We further demonstrate the proximity effect of metal-enhanced luminescence by exciting an undoped NaYF4 shell. The result shows a significant synergistic enhancement of up-conversion luminescence due to the active shell as spacer layer. In addition, we have shown this novel nanostructure may be useful in surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS).