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Effect of plasmonic nanostructures and nanofilms on fluorescence resonance energy transfer
Author(s) -
Szmacinski Henryk,
Ray Krishanu,
Lakowicz Joseph R.
Publication year - 2009
Publication title -
journal of biophotonics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.877
H-Index - 66
eISSN - 1864-0648
pISSN - 1864-063X
DOI - 10.1002/jbio.200910003
Subject(s) - förster resonance energy transfer , acceptor , fluorescence , quantum yield , materials science , analytical chemistry (journal) , resonant inductive coupling , quantum dot , plasmon , photochemistry , resonance (particle physics) , molecule , surface plasmon resonance , nanostructure , energy transfer , vinyl alcohol , nanotechnology , chemistry , chemical physics , optoelectronics , nanoparticle , atomic physics , optics , polymer , organic chemistry , physics , composite material , condensed matter physics
We investigate the effect of silver nanostructures and nanofilms on fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET). Thin layers of poly (vinyl alcohol) of 10 or 20 nm with homogenously distributed donor (Cy3) and acceptor (Cy5) molecules were coated on silver islands and continuous silver films. Several geometrical configurations were studied with multiple donor‐acceptor (D‐A) samples with various acceptor concentrations. The acceptor concentrations were adjusted to yield FRET efficiencies from about 10 to 92% on bare glass surfaces. Time‐resolved fluorescence spectroscopy was used to determine the energy transfer efficiency and the relative transfer rate. It was found that the relative transfer rate increased 2‐fold in the presence of continuous silver films and about 25‐fold in presence of silver island films. The largest enhancements in the energy transfer efficiency, up to 90%, were observed for low acceptor concentrations (large donor‐acceptor separations). To a first approximation, observed changes in FRET efficiencies were explained by an increase of the quantum yield of the donor molecules in the presence of silver islands. (© 2009 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)