Multiphoton emission of single CdZnSe/ZnS quantum dots coupled with plasmonic Au nanoparticles

The fluorescence blinking and low multiphoton emission of quantum dots (QDs) have limited their application in lasing, light-emitting diodes, and so on. Coupling of single QDs to plasmonic nanostructures is an effective approach to control the photon properties. Here plasmon-exciton systems including Au nanoparticles and CdZnSe/ZnS QDs were investigated at the single particle level. With the modulation of the local electromagnetic field, the fluorescence intensity of single QDs is increased, accompanied by a significant suppression in blinking behavior, and the lifetime is shortened from 15 ns to 2 ns. Moreover, the second-order photon intensity correlation at zero lag time g²(0) of coupled single QDs is larger than 0.5, indicating an increased probability of multiphoton emission. The enhancement factors of radiative and nonradiative decay rates of QDs coupled with Au nanoparticles are calculated. The sharply increased radiative decay rate can be comparable to the nonradiative Auger rate, leading to dominated multiple exciton radiative recombination with PL intensity enhancement, suppressed blinking, lifetime shortening, and multiphoton emission. The results of the exciton decay dynamics and emission properties of single QDs in this work are helpful in exploring the mechanism of plasmon-exciton interaction and optoelectronic application of single QDs.