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Surface enhanced fluorescence by porous alumina with nanohole arrays

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Abstract

The fluorescence enhancement of Rhodamine 6G (Rh6G) fluorophore in the close vicinity of porous alumina film with ordered nanohole arrays is investigated. Experimental observations show that the nonmetallic substrate with hole arrays enhances the fluorescence intensity. By comparing the fluorescence emissions that are excited with 325 nm and 532 nm, better fluorescence enhancement is obtained with excitation at a shorter wavelength. The study suggests that higher fluorescence excitation efficiency due to the energy transfer from oxygen vacancies to Rh6G fluorophore molecules is responsible for better fluorescence enhancement. The contribution of the scattering of nanohole arrays to the fluorescence enhancement is also proposed based on the intensity increase and reduced lifetime when the energy transfer from oxygen vacancy is absent. The result of the current study is useful for developing non-metal substrates in the study of spectroscopic enhancement, and is expected to advance the applications of porous alumina to microanalysis.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Physics and Information Technology, Shaanxi Normal University, Xi’an, 710062, China

    ZhengLong Zhang, HaiRong Zheng, Jun Dong, XiaoQing Yan & Yu Sun

  2. Beijing National Laboratory for Condensed Matter Physics and Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100190, China

    ZhengLong Zhang & HongXing Xu

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  1. ZhengLong Zhang
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  2. HaiRong Zheng
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  3. Jun Dong
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  4. XiaoQing Yan
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  5. Yu Sun
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  6. HongXing Xu
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Correspondence to HaiRong Zheng or HongXing Xu.

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Zhang, Z., Zheng, H., Dong, J. et al. Surface enhanced fluorescence by porous alumina with nanohole arrays. Sci. China Phys. Mech. Astron. 55, 767–771 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11433-012-4681-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11433-012-4681-1

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