Abstract
It is demonstrated that the spectrum, direction and polarization of rare-earth fluorescence can be tailored by embedding the impurity ions into a planar metal–dielectric structure (MDS). The latter was designed by spin coating a rare-earth-doped oxide film (TiO2:Sm3+) onto a gold-covered glass substrate. For spectral–directional investigations of Sm3+ fluorescence, the MDS was attached to a semi-cylindrical prism and excited by UV light from the flat side. An angular scan revealed a strongly polarized and directional emission of Sm3+ from the convex side of the prism. The tuning of TiO2 film thickness in the MDS allows a control of the polarization and direction of the emission bands. A theoretical modeling of the reflectivity of the MDS suggests that the observed angular resonances in the fluorescence emission are caused by its effective coupling with surface plasmons on the gold–dielectric interface or coupling with leaky modes in sufficiently thick dielectric films working as a waveguides.
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Acknowledgements
This work was supported by ERDF Centre of Excellence TK114 ‘Mesosystems: Theory and Applications’, partially by Nanotwinning project FP7-INCO-2011-6 and by Estonian Science Foundation grants 7456 and 8699.
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Dolgov, L., Kiisk, V., Matt, R. et al. Tailoring of the spectral–directional characteristics of rare-earth fluorescence by metal–dielectric planar structures. Appl. Phys. B 107, 749–753 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00340-012-5025-6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00340-012-5025-6