Condens. Matter 2017, 2(1), 8; doi:10.3390/condmat2010008
Facile Design of a Plasmonic Nanolaser
Department of Chemistry and Pharmacy, Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, Egerlandstr. 3, 91058 Erlangen, Germany
*
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Academic Editors: Augusto Marcelli and Antonio Bianconi
Received: 10 November 2016 / Revised: 15 January 2017 / Accepted: 27 January 2017 / Published: 4 February 2017
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Selected Papers from The 13th Conference on Atomically Controlled Surfaces, Interfaces and Nanostructures (ACSIN 2016))
Abstract
A spaser consists of a plasmonic noble-metal nanostructure that acts as nanocavity, when incorporated or surface-coupled two-level emitters constitute the nanoscale gain medium. Suited two-level emitters are, for instance, laser dyes. Optical pumping may provide efficient excitation energy transfer between the two-level emitters in the gain medium and the surface plasmons sustained in the nanocavity. Strong resonant coupling of the surface plasmon modes to the gain medium may establish an inherent feedback amplification mechanism which finally drives the spaser action. In this contribution, we demonstrate that spaser emission can be generated by amplifying longitudinal surface plasmon modes in gold nanorods by optically pumping surface-attached resonantly-coupled laser dyes. Therefore, we synthesized gold nanorods whose longitudinal surface plasmon resonance peak was adjusted between 680 and 700 nm. The gain medium was realized by electrostatically attaching the laser dye phthalocyanine tetrasulfonate via the positively-charged CTAB (cetyltrimethylammonium bromide) bilayer to the gold-nanorod surface. Phthalocyanine tetrasulfonate exhibits fluorescence at 700 nm. Fluorescence quenching experiments unambiguously gave indication of resonant excitation energy transfer. The fluorescence intensity ratioKeywords:
Plasmonic nanostructure; spaser; phthalocyanine tetrasulfonate; laser-dye-coated gold nanorod
▼
Figures
This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. (CC BY 4.0).
Share & Cite This Article
MDPI and ACS Style
Solowan, H.-P.; Kryschi, C. Facile Design of a Plasmonic Nanolaser. Condens. Matter 2017, 2, 8.
Note that from the first issue of 2016, MDPI journals use article numbers instead of page numbers. See further details here.
Article Metrics
Comments
[Return to top]
Condens. Matter
EISSN 2410-3896
Published by MDPI AG, Basel, Switzerland
RSS
E-Mail Table of Contents Alert