期刊名称:Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
印刷版ISSN:0027-8424
电子版ISSN:1091-6490
出版年度:2014
卷号:111
期号:3
页码:906-911
DOI:10.1073/pnas.1311477111
语种:English
出版社:The National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
摘要:Plasmonic nanostructures are of great current interest as chemical sensors, in vivo imaging agents, and for photothermal therapeutics. We study continuous-wave (cw) and pulsed-laser excitation of aqueous suspensions of Au nanorods as a model system for secondary light emission from plasmonic nanostructures. Resonant secondary emission contributes significantly to the background commonly observed in surface-enhanced Raman scattering and to the light emission generated by pulsed-laser excitation of metallic nanostructures that is often attributed to two-photon luminescence. Spectra collected using cw laser excitation at 488 nm show an enhancement of the broad spectrum of emission at the electromagnetic plasmon resonance of the nanorods. The intensity of anti-Stokes emission collected using cw laser excitation at 785 nm is described by a 300 K thermal distribution of excitations. Excitation by subpicosecond laser pulses at 785 nm broadens and increases the intensity of the anti-Stokes emission in a manner that is consistent with electronic Raman scattering by a high-temperature distribution of electronic excitations predicted by a two-temperature model. Broadening of the pulse duration using an etalon reduces the intensity of anti-Stokes emission in quantitative agreement with the model. Experiments using a pair of subpicosecond optical pulses separated by a variable delay show that the timescale of resonant secondary emission is comparable to the timescale for equilibration of electrons and phonons.