Anomalous enhanced emission from PbS quantum dots on a photonic-crystal microcavity

We report up to 75 times enhancement in emission from lithographically produced photonic crystals with postprocessing close-packed colloidal quantum-dot incorporation. In our analysis, we use the emission from a close-packed free-standing film as a reference. After discounting the angular redistribution effect, our analysis shows that the observed enhancement is larger than the combined effects of Purcell enhancement and dielectric enhancement with the microscopic local field. The additional enhancement mechanisms, which are consistent with all our observations, are thought to be spectral diffusion mediated by phonons and local polarization fluctuations that allow off-resonant excitons to emit at the cavity wavelengths.