Coupling Emitters and Silver Nanowires for Long-Range Plasmon-Mediated FRET

Quantum plasmonics and the interaction of quantum emitters with metal nanostructures are receiving a large interest. However, coupling two quantum emitters via a surface plasmon waveguide has remained a major technical challenge.

In a recent ACS Nano publication, we take a significant step towards achieving this goal and demonstrate for the first time the plasmon-mediated fluorescence energy transfer between two nanoparticles separated by micron distance. The key technical innovation is brought by a dedicated dual-beam optical microscope, allowing us to find the best configurations that maximize the nanoparticle-nanowire coupling.

Significance:

- We describe the experimental conditions to achieve high figures of merit for coupling nanoemitters with plasmonic waveguides, in excellent agreement with numerical simulations.

- We provide the first demonstration of long-range fluorescence energy transfer between two nanoparticles mediated by nanowire surface plasmons.