Surface plasmon enhanced photoluminescence of conjugated polymers

To produce surface plasmons, silver nanostructures were fabricated using a thermal evaporation method and the surface plasmon wavelength was tuned via an annealing. These nanostructures were located between the indium tin oxide (ITO) and poly(3,4-ethylenedioxy thiophene)/poly(styrenesulfonate) for the coupling of the surface plasmon resonance with organic fluorophores. To prevent the quenching of emission, spacer was placed between the light emitting polymers and the ITO substrate. As a result, the authors were able to observe an increase in photoluminescence of conjugated polymers using the silver nanostructures.