Influence of plasmonic resonant wavelength on energy transfer from an InGaN quantum well to quantum dots

We demonstrated the enhanced nonradiative resonant energy transfer (NRET) process by localized surface plasmon (LSP) in the hybrid InGaN quantum well (QW) and CdSe/ZnS quantum dot (QD) structures. The LSP resonant wavelengths could be adjusted by silver (Ag) nanoparticle (NP) arrays annealed from different thicknesses of Ag films. The LSP resonant wavelengths that are close to the peak QD emission helped to enhance the NRET between the QW and QDs. Compared to the original NRET in the absence of Ag NPs, the LSP-enhanced NRET rate was improved by 6.9 times at the resonant wavelength of 600 nm. The calculated efficiency of the LSP-enhanced NRET was 73.1%, which was almost twice that of the original efficiency. Although Ag NPs exhibited a quenching effect, the LSP-enhanced NRET at the resonant wavelength of 465 nm enhanced QD luminescence, which demonstrated their potential use in energy conversion devices.