The Poziotinib manufacturer intensity of the fluorescence at the bright spots near gilded nanoparticles is approximately 10 times higher than selleck inhibitor the background fluorescence of Sm3+ ions distant from metal inclusions (Figure 3). Figure 3 Micro-luminescence

spectra of TiO 2 :Sm 3+ films doped with gilded nanoparticles: (1) bright spot, (2) background ( λ exc   = 355 nm). Plasmonic enhancement of fluorescence is usually explained either by enhancement of light absorption or enhancement of radiative decay rate [1]. In the case of TiO2, at least two different RE excitation mechanisms must be distinguished. First mechanism is realized when the absorption of ultraviolet light causes intrinsic excitations in TiO2 host, such as self-trapped or impurity-trapped excitons. These excitons can non-radiatively transfer energy to the fluorescent impurity. The effective cross section of such indirect Sm3+ excitation is several orders of magnitude higher than direct absorption cross section 10−21 to 10−20 cm2 of Sm3+ ions for the visible light [11]. But ultraviolet light cannot efficiently excite plasmon in the gilded nanoparticles due to the lack of BVD-523 cost resonance. So, the reasons for the enhancement of Sm3+ fluorescence are either plasmonic enhancement of radiative decay rate or plasmonically assisted energy transfer from the excitons to the Sm3+ ions. Fluorescent decay rate is inversely proportional

to the fluorescent lifetime. To check plasmonic influence on the decay rate, we measured the fluorescent kinetics for the bright spots and for the background rare earth fluorescence at the ultraviolet excitation λ exc = 355 nm (Figure 4). It was necessary to use up to three exponential decay components to satisfactorily Phosphoprotein phosphatase model the kinetics: (1) where A 1, A 2, and A 3 are the coefficients of light intensity, τ 1, τ 2, τ 3 are the lifetimes of fluorescence. In such situation,

the overall rate of decay is frequently characterized by the average lifetime defined as (2) Figure 4 Normalized experimental fluorescence decay kinetics: from background (1), from bright spot (2) of TiO 2 :Sm 3+ -Au films. Obtained lifetimes of fluorescence are in the range of tens and hundreds of microseconds (Table 1). Fluorescence lifetimes of the order of hundreds of microseconds are typical for the rare earth ions situating in a good crystalline TiO2 anatase host [11]. Lifetimes in the range of tens of microseconds can be caused by Sm3+ fluorescent centers situating in the areas of TiO2 host having locally different crystallinity or local lattice defects. Corresponding lifetime components for the bright spots and for the background Sm3+ fluorescence are not very different. Based on this, we can suppose that the radiative rate of rare earth fluorophore is not very strongly influenced by localized plasmons.