ZnO nanorods decorated with gold nanoparticles of ~20 nm average size were fabricated by microwave-assisted chemical synthesis. For the surface-attached growth of metal nanoparticles, the ZnO nanostructures were first functionalized by sodium citrate and then the metal ions were reduced under microwave heating. While the incorporation of gold nanoparticles at the surface seen to quench both the...

In this paper, we present an improved high-sensitivity approach for on-chip fluorescence-based measurements for disposable lab-on-a-chip (LOC). We use a bilayer organic photodiode (OPD), cross-polarization, and improved integration to enhance Rhodamine 6G limit of detection (LOD) to 10 nM, which is a 10-100 fold improvement over current reports in literature. A prototype system was fully charac...

We investigate the effects of two-dimensional confinement on the lasing properties of a classical random laser system operating in the incoherent feedback (diffusive) regime. A suspension of 250 nm rutile (TiO2) particles in a rhodamine 6G solution was inserted into the hollow core of a photonic crystal fiber generating the first random fiber laser and a novel quasi-one-dimensional random laser...

We present a novel approach to high-throughput Fluorescence Correlation Spectroscopy (FCS) which enables us to obtain one order of magnitude improvement in acquisition time. Our approach utilizes a liquid crystal on silicon spatial light modulator to generate dynamically adjustable focal spots, and uses an eight-pixel monolithic single-photon avalanche photodiode array. We demonstrate the capab...

We demonstrate a surface enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) substrate by integrating plasmonic-active SiO(2) nanotubes into Si(3)N(4) gratings. First, the dielectric grating that is working under guided mode resonance (GMR) provides enhanced electric field for localized surface plasmon polaritons on the surface of metallic nanoparticles. Second, we use SiO(2) nanotubes with densely assembled silv...

We report on strong coupling between surface-plasmon polaritons (SPP) and Rhodamine 6G (R6G) molecules, with double vacuum Rabi splitting energies up to 230 and 110 meV. In addition, we demonstrate the emission of all three energy branches of the strongly coupled SPP-exciton hybrid system, revealing features of system dynamics that are not visible in conventional reflectometry. Finally, in anal...

We have examined the effect of ordered silver nanocluster substrates on the surface-enhanced Raman spectrum of rhodamine 6G (R6G). Triangular shaped silver nanocluster arrays with order on the approximately 100 mum range were prepared using nanosphere lithography. Direct comparisons of R6G surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) signals between ordered nanocluster regions and amorphous Ag re...

Nanobubbles can be observed with optical microscopy using the total internal re ection uorescence (TIRF) excitation. We report on TIRF visualization using Rhodamine 6G at 5μM concentration which results to strongly contrasted pictures. The preferential absorption and the high spatial resolution allow to detect nanobubbles with diameters of 230 nm and above. We resolve the nucleation dynamics du...

An extremely sensitive fluorescence sensor has been developed for selectively detection of mercury ions based on metallophilic Hg(2+)-Au(+) interactions, which results in an effective release of pre-adsorbed rhodamine 6G (R6G) molecules from the nanoporous gold substrate, associated with a significant decrease of fluorescence intensity. The optical sensor has a detection sensitivity down to 0.6...

We have demonstrated that by adding the solution of aggregated silver nanoparticles to the solution of rhodamine 6G dye, one can enhance the efficiency of spontaneous and stimulated emission. We attribute an increase of the spontaneous emission intensity of dye to the increase of the absorption efficiency caused by the field enhancements in metallic nanostructures associated with surface plasmo...