C60 as an active smart spacer material on silver thin film substrates for enhanced surface plasmon coupled emission

Abstract

In this study, we present the use of C₆₀ as an active spacer material on a silver (Ag) based surface plasmon coupled emission (SPCE) platform. In addition to its primary role of protecting the Ag thin film from oxidation, the incorporation of C₆₀ facilitated the achievement of a 30-fold enhancement in the emission intensity of rhodamine B (RhB) fluorophore. The high signal yield was attributed to the unique π–π interactions between C₆₀ thin films and RhB, which enabled efficient transfer of energy of RhB emission to Ag plasmon modes. Furthermore, minor variations in the C₆₀ film thickness yielded large changes in the enhancement and angularity properties of the SPCE signal, which can be exploited for sensing applications. Finally, the low-cost fabrication process of the Ag–C₆₀ thin film stacks render C₆₀ based SPCE substrates ideal, for the economic and simplistic detection of analytes.