Exciton-Plasmon Interactions in Metal-Semiconductor Nanostructures : Potentials of Controlling Quantum Dot Emissions

Over the past decades, the use of surface plasmons (SPs) of noble metal nano-particles to control light emission on the nanometer scale has increased rapidly, due to their field enhancement and other special properties. With this boom in physics, chemistry, biomedical science and engineering has also come a rise in the need for understanding the dynamics of light emission in these systems. Traditional photoluminescence spectrum only gives limited information on quantum dot emission under SP resonances. This book, therefore, uses modern Time-Correlated Single Photon Counting technique and other approaches to study SPs in nanoparticle arrays, and their effects on semiconductor quantum dot emission. The observed SP resonances in metal nano-disc arrays enhances the CdSe/ZnS (core/shell) quantum dot emission in a way that is dependent on dipole emission angle and photon polarization, which is fully explained by quantum electrodynamics. This fundamental finding could be used to control the light emission in plasmonic device applications.