Localized surface Plasmon enhanced fluorescence on silver nanoclusters

Using low energy cluster beam deposition based on magnetron plasma gas aggregation cluster source, we fabricated silver nanoclusters on a quartz substrate and measured its transmittance spectrum. Then we dispersed SiO₂ fluorescent nanospheres separately on bare quartz substrates and quartz substrates with silver nanoclusters. We found that the fluorescence intensity with silver nanoclusters was 5.3 larger than that without silver nanoclusters. Finally, we used the Mie scattering theory to numerically calculate the electric field intensity distributions of a single silver nanosphere where surface Plasmon resonance existed. We give a reasonable explanation for the experimental results.