Hybrid nanostructures for enhanced light-harvesting: plasmon induced increase in fluorescence from individual photosynthetic pigment-protein complexes.

Beyer, Sebastian R; Ullrich, Simon; Kudera, Stefan; Gardiner, Alastair T; Cogdell, Richard J; Köhler, Jürgen · Nano Lett · 2011

basic_science · Level V

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Abstract

We studied the optical response from more than 13, 000 individual photosynthetic pigment-protein complexes interacting with spherical gold nanoparticles. The nanodots were arranged in a quasi-hexagonal array by diblock copolymer micellar nanolithography. Exciting the proteins within the spectral range of the nanoparticles' plasmon resonance yields a clear enhancement of the protein fluorescence intensity, whereas excitation far out of the plasmon resonance features no effect. This result indicates a strategy for the construction of efficient hybrid light-harvesting devices.

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