Strong Purcell effect observed in single thick shell CdSe/CdS nanocrystals coupled to localized surface plasmons

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates that coupling thick shell CdSe/CdS nanocrystals with localized surface plasmons on metallic films at room temperature significantly enhances spontaneous emission, enabling tailored quantum emission with high efficiency.

Contribution

It introduces a novel room-temperature plasmonic coupling method with thick shell nanocrystals, achieving high Purcell factors and controllable quantum emission properties.

Findings

Purcell factors up to 60 achieved

High photon collection efficiency demonstrated

Reduced blinking and tailored quantum emission observed

Abstract

High quality factor dielectric cavities designed to a nanoscale accuracy are mostly used to increase the spontaneous emission rate of a single emitter. Here we show that the coupling, at room temperature, between thick shell CdSe/CdS nanocrystals and random metallic films offers a very promising alternative approach. Optical modes confined at the nanoscale induce strong Purcell factors reaching values as high as 60. Moreover the quantum emission properties can be tailored: strong antibunching or radiative biexcitonic cascades can be obtained with high photon collection efficiency and extremely reduced blinking.