Selective turn-on and modulation of resonant energy transfer in single plasmonic hybrid nanostructures

Förster resonant energy transfer (FRET) is a nonradiative process by which the energy of light absorbed by a donor molecule is transferred to an acceptor molecule over a distance of several nanometers. FRET plays a crucial role in photosynthesis and nature-inspired artificial light-harvesting systems that are being explored for use in energy conversion applications. Localized plasmons of metal nanoparticles can potentially lead to a significant increase of FRET efficiency and effective donor-acceptor distance. Here, we prepare hybrid nanostructures composed of a gold nanorod and donor and acceptor molecules covalently attached to its surface, and study them on the level of a single nanoparticle by simultaneous dark-field scattering, fluorescence imaging and spectroscopy. The single-particle approach enables selective excitation of the longitudinal plasmon of the gold nanorod by polarization of the excitation light. The emission intensity of the acceptor molecules can be controllably and reversibly modulated over a wide range by the polarization angle, thus enabling a selective turn-on of the FRET process and control over the emission color of the hybrid nanostructure. Numerical simulations show that the interactions of the donor and acceptor molecules with the plasmon lead to an increase of the energy transfer efficiency by a factor of ∼65. These findings represent the concept of a novel colour switching approach and could pave the way for innovative applications in optoelectronics and nanophotonics.