Exciton-plasmon coupling: Good or Bad?

In this paper, the interaction of quantum emitters with plasmonic nanostructures and the resulting enhancement is studied. Special focus is placed on emitters with less than unity quantum efficiency, such as luminescent systems, and the effect the intrinsic losses have on fluorescence quenching in the extreme near field of metallic structures. With the example of a luminescent organic semiconductor film, we show that quenching plays only a minor role for weak emitters and explain the extraordinarily large enhancement of such a system in the extreme near field of a plasmonic structure. This framework will allow the development and optimization of applications in the field of ultra-sensitive single-molecule spectroscopy and imaging.