Resonance energy transfer near metal nanostructures mediated by surface plasmons

TL;DR

This paper presents a unified theory of plasmon-assisted resonance energy transfer near metal nanostructures, highlighting the dominance of radiative transfer mechanisms over nonradiative ones in various conditions.

Contribution

It introduces a comprehensive model that accounts for energy balance in plasmon-mediated RET, emphasizing the role of radiative processes near metal nanostructures.

Findings

RET is dominated by plasmon-enhanced radiative transfer in many scenarios.

RET magnitude is highly sensitive to molecular positions near nanoparticles.

Numerical results for Ag nanoparticles support the theoretical predictions.

Abstract

We develop a unified theory of plasmon-assisted resonance energy transfer (RET) between molecules near a metal nanostructure that maintains energy balance between transfer, dissipation, and radiation. We show that in a wide range of parameters, including in the near field, RET is dominated by plasmon-enhanced radiative transfer (PERT) rather than by a nonradiative transfer mechanism. Our numerical calculations performed for molecules near the Ag nanoparticle indicate that RET magnitude is highly sensitive to molecules' positions.