Influence of Plasmon Excitations in Au Nanoparticles upon Fluorescence and Photostability of Photosynthetic Complexes

Bartosz Krajnik, Nikodem Czechowski, D. Piatkowski, Sebastian Mackowski, Eckhard Hofmann, Stefan Pichler, Wolfgang Heiss

Department of Biology and Biotechnology, Ruhr-University Bochum, Bochum, Germany.
Institut für Halbleiter-und Festk?rperphysik, Universit?t Linz, Linz, Austria.
Institute of Physics, Faculty of Physics, Astronomy and Informatics, Nicolaus Copernicus University, Torun, Poland.

DOI: 10.4236/opj.2013.31001                

Abstract

Fluorescence spectroscopy is applied to study the influence of plasmon excitations in spherical Au nanoparticles on the optical properties of chlorophyll-containing light-harvesting complexes. The separation between the two nanostructures is controlled via silica layer with varied thickness. We observe strong increase of the emission intensity for a 12- nm-thick spacer and the increase is accompanied with shortening of the fluorescence lifetime, which allows us to separate contributions of absorption and emission rate enhancement. At the same time we find an increase of photobleaching. These findings are interpreted as a result of spectral overlap between plasmon resonance and chlorophyll fluorescence.

Keywords

Plasmonics; Fluorescence; Photosynthesis

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

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