Up-conversion luminescence of gold nanospheres when excited at nonsurface plasmon resonance wavelength by a continuous wave laser.

We show that, when gold nanospheres are excited at the red side of the surface plasmon resonance (SPR) wavelength at 592 nm by a continuous wave (CW) laser, they give substantial up-converted luminescence in the SPR wavelength range. The luminescence intensity scales as a second-order function of the excitation power, with a quantum yield ~1/50 of down-conversion luminescence when illuminated at a power of 30 MW/cm(2). The luminescence spectrum is completely different than the SPR profile, indicating a new emission mechanism possibly involving interband transitions coupled with phonons or localized vibration of neighboring gold atoms. Such luminescence is also observed to be substantial for short gold nanorods with an aspect ratio of ~2 but weak for bulk gold. This study provides new insight to the understanding of gold nanoparticle luminescence and opens a new detection scheme for gold nanoparticle-based biological imaging.