Cooperative amplification of energy transfer in plasmonic systems

TL;DR

This paper investigates how cooperative effects among donors near plasmonic nanostructures enhance energy transfer efficiency by utilizing superradiant and subradiant states, with numerical demonstrations on spherical nanoparticles.

Contribution

It reveals that cooperative energy transfer via superradiant and subradiant states significantly boosts efficiency, a novel insight into plasmonic energy transfer mechanisms.

Findings

Cooperative effects lead to increased energy transfer efficiency.

Superradiant and subradiant states operate effectively in different energy domains.

Numerical results confirm amplification on spherical nanoparticles.

Abstract

We study cooperative effects in energy transfer (ET) from an ensemble of donors to an acceptor near a plasmonic nanostructure. We demonstrate that in cooperative regime ET takes place from plasmonic superradiant and subradiant states rather than from individual donors leading to a significant increase of ET efficiency. The cooperative amplification of ET relies on the large coupling of superradiant states to external fields and on the slow decay rate of subradiant states. We show that superradiant and subradiant ET mechanisms are efficient in different energy domains and therefore can be utilized independently. We present numerical results demonstrating the amplification effect for a layer of donors and an acceptor on a spherical plasmonic nanoparticle.