Surface plasmon polariton enhanced upconversion in rare earth doped nano crystals on plasmonic substrates

Author

Hor, Amy ; QuocAnh Luu ; Fisher, Jonathan ; Ting-Shan Luk ; Baroughi, Mahdi ; May, P. Stanley ; Smith, Samuel

Author_Institution

Nanosci. & Nanoengineering, South Dakota Sch. of Mines & Technol., Rapid City, SD, USA

fYear

2014

fDate

8-13 June 2014

Firstpage

2270

Lastpage

2272

Abstract

Plasmonic enhancement of near infra-red to visible upconversion could potentially yield high-efficiency spectral converters for solar cells. We use spectroscopic imaging to investigate the intensity enhancement and modification of radiative rates of infra-red to visible upconversion from rare-earth doped nanoparticles (NaYF₄:Yb:Er[Tm]) supported on substrates designed to support a surface plasmon polariton at frequencies which are near-resonant with the rare-earth sensitizer (Yb³⁺) absorption. Using spatially-resolved spectroscopic imaging, we directly observe a systematic enhancement in the efficiency of upconversion associated with the interaction of the co-doped nano-particles with the plasmonic substrates. Spectrally resolved reflectivity and time-resolved luminescence decay measurements support our interpretation.

Keywords

absorption; nanoparticles; plasmonics; rare earth compounds; reflectivity; sodium compounds; solar cells; surface plasmons; yttrium compounds; (NaYF₄:Yb:Er[Tm]); high-efficiency spectral converters; intensity enhancement; nanoparticles; near infrared to visible upconversion; near-resonant absorption; plasmonic substrates; radiative rates; rare earth doped nanocrystals; rare-earth sensitizer absorption; solar cells; spatially-resolved spectroscopic imaging; spectrally resolved reflectivity; surface plasmon polariton enhanced upconversion; time-resolved luminescence decay measurements; Absorption; Imaging; Luminescence; Nanobioscience; Plasmons; Reflectivity; Substrates; Upconversion; erbium; plasmonics; sodium yttrium fluoride; spectral conversion; surface plasmon polariton; thulium; ytterbium;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Photovoltaic Specialist Conference (PVSC), 2014 IEEE 40th

Conference_Location

Denver, CO

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/PVSC.2014.6925378

Filename

6925378