Angular-Dependent Metal-Enhanced Fluorescence from Silver Island Films

In this letter we report the observation of angular-dependent Metal Enhanced Fluorescence (MEF) from fluorophores deposited onto silver island films (SiFs). When illuminated with laser light (473 nm) at angles of 45 and 90 degrees from the surface, SiFs scattered light at wide observation angles biased by the direction of the incident light. We observed angular-dependent MEF (10-fold) from FITC-HSA immobilized onto the SiFs, again slightly biased with respect to the direction of the incident light. We also measured the photostability of FITC from the back of the glass substrate at angles of 225 and 340 degrees.