Light Harvesting as a Simple and Versatile Way to Enhance Brightness of Luminescent Sensors

The emissive output of indicator dyes in luminescent sensors can be amplified by the addition of antenna dyes with a higher brightness. The highly concentrated antenna dye molecules absorb the excitation light and transfer the energy to an indicator dye. This harvesting of light makes thin sensor layers (thickness <500 nm) and nanometer sized sensor particles with exceptionally high brightness and compatible with the most powerful LEDs available. The performance of sensor layers of ∼250 nm thickness employing light harvesting was investigated and compared with established sensors. The principle is demonstrated for oxygen and ammonia sensors. An overview of possible application of light harvesting to various reagent mediated optical sensing schemes is given.