Heterogeneous fluorescence intermittency in single layer reduced graphene oxide

Fluorescence intermittency, or blinking, has been observed in a wide range of systems, including quantum dots, nanorods, and nanowires. Striking similarities have been documented in the optical response of these nanoscale emitters. However, the mechanism behind blinking still remains elusive. For the first time, blinking has been observed in a two-dimensional system in recent experiments on reduced graphene oxide (rGO). Here we reveal the power spectral density (PSD) of the blinking in rGO shares the same 1/f-like behavior of previously known blinking systems; meanwhile, the heterogeneous dynamic evolution and spatial correlation make rGO a unique blinking system. To investigate the origin of blinking, we self-consistently explain the evolution of rGO blinking using the phenomenological multiple recombination center (MRC) model that captures common features of nanoscale blinking. Furthermore, tight binding method and ab-initio method calculations of carbon nanodots are utilized to look for the microscopic structure corresponding to the RCs in the MRC model.