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Updated: Mar 25, 2026

Synthesis of Near-Infrared Emitting Gold Nanoclusters for Biological Applications
Published on: March 22, 2020
Optical investigation of gold shell enhanced 25 nm diameter upconverted fluorescence emission
Kory Green1, Janina Wirth, Shuang Fang Lim
1Department of Physics, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC 27695, USA.
Abstract:
We enhance the efficiency of upconverting nanoparticles by investigating the plasmonic coupling of 25 nm diameter NaYF4:Yb, Er nanoparticles with a gold-shell coating, and study the physical mechanism of enhancement by single-particle, time-resolved spectroscopy. A three-fold overall increase in emission intensity, and five-fold increase of green emission for these plasmonically enhanced particles have been achieved. Using a combination of structural and fluorescent imaging, we demonstrate that fluorescence enhancement is based on the photonic properties of single, isolated particles. Time-resolved spectroscopy shows that the increase in fluorescence is coincident with decreased rise time, which we attribute to an enhanced absorption of infrared light and energy transfer from Yb(3+) to Er(3+) atoms. Time-resolved spectroscopy also shows that fluorescence life-times are decreased to different extents for red and green emission. This indicates that the rate of photon emission is not suppressed, as would be expected for a metallic cavity, but rather enhanced because the metal shell acts as an optical antenna, with differing efficiency at different wavelengths.
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