Photoluminescence Enhancement of Acridine Orange by Embedded Ion Implanted Silver Nanoparticles

The Metal enhanced Photoluminescence (PL) effect of Acridine Orange fluorophore in the proximity of embedded ion implanted silver nanoparticles were investigated experimentally. Silver nanoparticles were synthesized in soda lime glass at fixed 70 keV ion beam energy and each sample were prepared at different ion beam fluence. Significant enhancement of the PL intensity was observed when Acridine Orange was excited with 450 nm light in the presence of silver nanoparticles. The influence of different ion beam fluences of silver nanoparticles on the PL properties of the fluorophore molecules were explored experimentally. The results demonstrated that various distributions of embedded silver particles were able to produce stronger PL enhancement, which could be attributed due to the plasmonic field enhancement of nanoparticles. PL measurements were recorded using steady state photoluminescence spectroscopy and silver nanoparticles' existence was confirmed by optical absorption spectroscopy.