Electric Switching of Fluorescence Decay in Gold-Silica-Dye Nematic Nanocolloids Mediated by Surface Plasmons

TL;DR

This study demonstrates electrically tunable fluorescence decay in gold-silica-dye nanocolloids, achieved through scalable synthesis and self-assembly, with potential applications in nanostructured composite materials.

Contribution

It introduces a scalable wet chemical synthesis method for anisotropic nanostructures and shows their fluorescence properties can be electrically tuned in device-scale composites.

Findings

Fluorescence decay rates and intensity are tunable by low-voltage electric fields.

Ordered colloidal dispersions exhibit controllable optical properties.

Potential for practical nanostructured composite materials.

Abstract

Tunable composite materials with interesting physical behavior can be designed through integrating unique optical properties of solid nanostructures with the facile responses of soft matter to weak external stimuli, but this approach remains challenged by their poorly controlled co-assembly at the mesoscale. Using scalable wet chemical synthesis procedures, we fabricated anisotropic gold-silica-dye colloidal nanostructures and then organized them into the device-scale (demonstrated for square inch cells) electrically tunable composites by simultaneously invoking molecular and colloidal self-assembly. We show that the ensuing ordered colloidal dispersions of shape-anisotropic nanostructures exhibit tunable fluorescence decay rates and intensity. We characterize how these properties depend on low-voltage fields and polarization of both the excitation and emission light, demonstrating a great potential for the practical realization of an interesting breed of nanostructured composite materials.