Impact of a charged neighboring particle on Förster resonance energy transfer (FRET)

Förster resonance energy transfer (FRET) is an important physical phenomenon which demands precise control over the FRET rate for its wide range of applications. Hence, enhancing the FRET rate using different techniques has been extensively studied in the literature. Research indicates that introducing additional particles to a system consisting of a donor-acceptor pair can change the behaviour of FRET in the system. One such technique is to utilize the collective oscillations of the surface electrons of a neighboring electrically-neutral metal nanoparticle (MNP). However, the perceived changes on the FRET rate between the donor and the acceptor, when the MNP carries excess electrical charges are yet unknown. In this paper, we study these changes by introducing a charged MNP, in the proximity of an excited donor and a ground state acceptor. We deploy the classical Green's tensor to express the FRET rate in the system. We consider an effective dielectric response for the MNP, which accounts for the extraneous surface charge effects. We analyze the electrical potential at the acceptor position due to the changed dipole moment of the donor molecule as a result of the electric field induced at the donor position, and obtain the FRET rate of the system. This model considers arbitrary locations and orientations of the two molecular dipole moments with regard to the position of the spherical MNP. We present the enhancement of the FRET rate, predominantly caused by both the surface plasmon excitations and the extraneous surface electrical charges carried by the neighboring MNP. We obtain the results by varying the separation distance between the molecules and the MNP, the transition frequency of the donor-acceptor pair and the size of the metallic sphere. Specifically, we demonstrate that a donor-acceptor pair placed in the vicinity of an electrically-charged Silver MNP exhibits a remarkable improvement in the FRET rate. Furthermore, the aggregate FRET enhancement is determined by other characteristics such as the location of the donor, transition frequency, separation distances and the radius of the MNP. In essence, these findings reveal an approach to realize the enhanced FRET rate in a larger span in a more controlled manner that is desirable in many FRET-based applications including spectroscopic measurements.