Investigation of fluorescence resonance energy transfer ultrafast dynamics in electrostatically repulsed and attracted exciton–plasmon systems*

Abstract

Following the gradual maturation of synthetic techniques for nanomaterials, exciton–plasmon composites have become a research hot-spot due to their controllable energy transfer through electromagnetic fields on the nanoscale. However, most reports ignore fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET) under electrostatic repulsion conditions. In this study, the FRET process is investigated in both electrostatic attraction and electrostatic repulsion systems. By changing the Au : quantum dot ratio, local-field induced FRET can be observed with a lifetime of ns and a fast component of hundreds of ps. These results indicate that the intrinsic transfer process can only elucidated by considering both steady and transient state information.