Contrast Enhancement in Fluorescence Microscope by Plasmonic Coupling

A fluorescence microscope taking advantage of plasmonic coupling is in-proof demonstrated. Silver nano-wires and nano-particles are chosen as the metallic nano-objects, which are put on a silver film with the Rhodamine B-doped PMMA film as the spacer. Plasmonic coupling between the metallic nano-objects and the Ag film will induce either fluorescence quenching or enhancement dependent on the thickness of the spacer layer, which both enhance the contrast of the fluorescence images. Our experiment provides a feasible method to enhance the contrast of fluorescence microscope, which has potential applications in fluorescence-based imaging or sensing.