Fluorescence mapping of PCP light-harvesting complexes coupled to silver nanowires

Abstract

In this work we demonstrate confocal fluorescence imaging of hybrid nanostructures composed of silver nanowires and peridinin-chlorophyll-protein light-harvesting complexes. The length of silver nanowires, which reaches 10 μm, allows for determination of the nanowire position and consequently direct correlation with the fluorescence image. In this way we probe the influence of plasmon induced electromagnetic field on the fluorescence of light-harvesting complexes. When the nanowires are spaced from the light-harvesting complexes by a 10 nm thick dielectric layer, we observe a fluorescence enhancement, which depends upon the laser excitation wavelength. The measured enhancement values are 2.5 and 1.9 for 405 nm and 485 nm, respectively. Larger enhancement for the 405 nm excitation is attributed to direct creation of plasmon excitations in the silver nanowires.