Biological imaging applications using colloidal quantum dots with enhanced photoluminescence intensity

The combination of colloidal quantum dots (QDs) and metals yields plasmonic effects, which is promising for application in bio-imaging. On increasing the contact area between CdSe QDs and gold, the PL enhancement ratio increases because of enhanced coupling between the excitons of CdSe QDs and the surface plasmon fields of gold nanoplates; furthermore, a 1.5 times larger PL enhancement factor is observed. These results indicate the correlation between the surface plasmonic effective areas and enhancement ratio of PL, which can help identify a condition for the maximized enhancement of PL intensity for designing more efficient future bio-imaging devices.