Enhancement of spontaneous and stimulated emission of a rhodamine 6G dye by an Ag aggregate

M. A. Noginov, Center for Materials Research, Norfolk State University
G. Zhu, Center for Materials Research, Norfolk State University
M. Bahoura, Center for Materials Research, Norfolk State University
C. E. Small, Center for Materials Research, Norfolk State University
C. Davison, Center for Materials Research, Norfolk State University
J. Adegoke, Center for Materials Research, Norfolk State University
V. P. Drachev, Birck Nanotechnology Center, School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Purdue University
P. Nyga, Birck Nanotechnology Center and School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Purdue University
V. M. Shalaev, Birck Nanotechnology Center and School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Purdue University

Abstract

We have demonstrated that by adding the solution of aggregated silver nanoparticles to the solution of rhodamine 6G dye, one can enhance the efficiency of spontaneous and stimulated emission. We attribute an increase of the spontaneous emission intensity of dye to the increase of the absorption efficiency caused by the field enhancements in metallic nanostructures associated with surface plasmons. The enhancement of the stimulated emission of dye, which has the same nature as the enhancement of absorption, was observed in the pump-probe and laser experiments.