Toroidal Plasmonic Nanodimers for Enhanced Near-Infrared Emission in Heterostructured InP Quantum Dots

TL;DR

This study demonstrates how silver toroidal plasmonic nanoantenna dimers can significantly enhance near-infrared emission from heterostructured InP quantum dots through tunable resonances and strong local field confinement.

Contribution

It introduces a geometry-tunable toroidal nanoantenna platform that enhances NIR emission of InP quantum dots by spectral alignment and Purcell effect optimization.

Findings

Achieved large Purcell enhancements with high quantum efficiencies.

Spectral tuning of antenna resonance aligns with QD emission bands.

Nanometer-scale emitter-antenna separation modulates radiative rates.

Abstract

Near-infrared (NIR) emitters operating in the 650-900 nm range are highly attractive for imaging and sensing in turbid media; however, cadmium-free InP-based quantum dots (QDs) often suffer from limited brightness due to nonradiative pathways and inefficient photon outcoupling. In particular, heterostructured InP QDs can exhibit band alignments that induce partial spatial separation of charge carriers, leading to reduced electron-hole wavefunction overlap. This modifies intrinsic recombination dynamics and enhances the sensitivity of their emission to the surrounding photonic environment. Here, we investigate silver toroidal plasmonic nanoantenna dimers (Ag TPNDs) through finite-difference-time-domain (FDTD) simulations as a geometry-tunable platform for enhancing NIR emission of heterostructured InP-based QDs. The coupled toroidal geometry supports strongly confined bonding modes that generate intense nanogap hotspots, while its resonance can be systematically tuned through the toroid aspect ratio. By spectrally aligning the antenna response with QD emission bands (675-845 nm), we achieve large Purcell enhancements together with high quantum efficiencies, demonstrating efficient conversion of enhanced decay rates into radiative emission. We further show that nanometer-scale variations in emitter-antenna separation strongly modulate the radiative rates and spectral response. These results establish toroidal plasmonic nanodimers as a topology-driven platform for controlling emission in NIR quantum emitters and for advancing NIR nanophotonic applications.