Plasmonic Enhancement of Two-Photon Excited Luminescence of Gold Nanoclusters

Plasmonic-enhanced luminescence of single molecules enables imaging and detection of low quantities of fluorophores, down to individual molecules. In this work, we present two-photon excited luminescence of single gold nanoclusters, Au₁₈(SG)₁₄, in close proximity to bare gold nanorods (AuNRs). We observed 25-times enhanced emission of gold nanoclusters (AuNCs) in near infrared region, which was mainly attributed to the resonant excitation of localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) of AuNRs and spectral overlap of LSPR band with photoluminescence of AuNCs. This work is an initial step in application of combined nanoparticles: gold nanorods and ultrasmall nanoclusters in a wide range of multiphoton imaging and biosensing applications.