Spatially uniform enhancement of single quantum dot emission using plasmonic grating decoupler

Abstract

We demonstrate a spatially uniform enhancement of individual quantum dot (QD) fluorescence emission using plasmonic grating decouplers on thin gold or silver films. Individual QDs are deposited within the grating in a controlled way to investigate the position dependency on both the radiation pattern and emission enhancement. We also describe the optimization of the grating decoupler. We achieve a fluorescence enhancement ∼3 times higher than using flat plasmon film, for any QD position in the grating.