Enhancing or inhibiting spontaneous emission from fluorescent molecules in the near-field of silicon nanoantennas (Conference Presentation)

Optical nanoantennas have the ability to enhance the spontaneous emission rate and brightness of solid-state emitters. Using scanning probe microscopy, we analyze in three dimensions the near-field interaction between a 100 nm fluorescent nanosphere and silicon nanoantennas. Furthermore, fluorescence correlation spectroscopy measurements demonstrate that the fluorescence intensity of dye molecules can be enhanced by more than two orders of magnitude in the nanoscale gap between silicon nanodisks. These results show the potential of silicon antennas for the manipulation of solid-state emitters at the nanoscale and at room temperature.