Tens of thousands‐fold upconversion luminescence enhancement induced by a single gold nanorod

Abstract

Upconversion nanoparticles (UCNPs) have gained increasing attention for their wide applications in bioimaging, displays and photovoltaics. However, low efficiency has been an ongoing challenge for further developments. In this work, it is proposed that the ultrasmall size of UCNPs is essential for achieving large enhancement factors and experimentally demonstrated with 4-nm UCNPs. A strategy of plasmonic dual resonance is proposed in which two distinct localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) peaks of gold nanorods (GNRs) were designed to perfectly match both the excitation and emission light wavelength of UCNPs. Combining the excitation enhancement and Purcell effect, a huge enhancement factor of tens of thousands-fold is stochastically demonstrated for single UCNPs in solution. The largest overall enhancement region is close to the end of a GNR but not in its central part. The excitation enhancement (up to three orders of magnitude) and the emission enhancement (larger than one order of magnitude) induced by the Purcell effect are experimentally demonstrated separately. This study provides insight into how to achieve a very large upconversion enhancement factor with surface plasmons and will catalyze development of UCNPs' extensive applications.

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