Dependence of Fluorescence Intensity on the Spectral Overlap between Fluorophores and Plasmon Resonant Single Silver Nanoparticles

We investigate the fluorescence from dyes coupled to individual DNA-functionalized metal nanoparticles. We use single-particle darkfield scattering and fluorescence microscopy to correlate the fluorescence intensity of the dyes with the localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) spectra of the individual metal nanoparticles to which they are attached. For each of three different dyes, we observe a strong correlation between the fluorescence intensity of the dye and the degree of spectral overlap with the plasmon resonance of the nanoparticle. On average, we observe the brightest fluorescence from dyes attached to metal nanoparticles that have a LSPR scattering peak ∼40−120 meV higher in energy than the emission peak of the fluorophore. These results should prove useful for understanding and optimizing metal-enhanced fluorescence.