Spatial mapping of bleaching in a metal-organic plasmon converter

Abstract

Hybrid nanophotonic elements, fabricated by organic and inorganic materials, are going to be key components of modern devices. Coupled systems of photoemitters with a plasmonic waveguide serve the demand for nanoscopic frequency converters. However, processes like the degradation of the photoemitters via photobleaching occur and need to be monitored and controlled, to realize future successful devices. We introduce a hybrid perylene-diimide / silver nanowire as plasmon frequency converter. A versatile method is presented to monitor and analyze the bleaching process. It is based on a time series of photoluminescence images, during the operation of a single converter. An analytical model is applied on the data and unveils that the photobleaching rate is constant and independent of the operation of the plasmon converter.