Fluorescence quenching and photobleaching in Au/Rh6G nanoassemblies: impact of competition between radiative and non-radiative decay

L. Dong; F. Ye; J. Hu; S. Popov; A. T. Friberg; M. Muhammed

doi:10.2971/jeos.2011.11019

Journal of the European Optical Society - Rapid publications, Vol 6 (2011)

Fluorescence quenching and photobleaching in Au/Rh6G nanoassemblies: impact of competition between radiative and non-radiative decay

L. Dong, F. Ye, J. Hu, S. Popov, A. T. Friberg, M. Muhammed

Abstract

Fluorescence quenching from nanoassemblies formed by Rhodamine 6G and gold nanoparticles (Au NPs) of 2.6 nm radius has been investigated. The presence of Au NPs also induces long-term degradation of the photostability (photobleaching) of Rhodamine 6G used as gain medium in a Fabry-Perot laser cavity. We found that the degradation gets profound when the Au NPs concentration is significantly increased. Calculation of the radiative rate and direct time-resolved measurement of the fluorescence decay indicates that both the decrease of radiative decay rate and increase of non-radiative decay rate are responsible for the fluorescence quenching and photostability degradation. An energy transfer from the dye molecules to gold nanoparticles is dominating within the small distance between them and suppresses the quantum efficiency of Rhodamine 6G drastically. In long time scale, the photobleaching rate was slowing down, and laser output intensity reached a stabilized level which depends on the gold nanoparticles concentration.

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