Plasmon induced modification of silicon nanocrystals photoluminescence in presence of gold nanostripes.

We report on the results of theoretical and experimental studies of photoluminescense of silicon nanocrystals in the proximity to plasmonic modes of different types. In the studied samples, the type of plasmonic mode is determined by the filling ratio of a one-dimensional array of gold stripes which covers the thin film with silicon nanocrystals on a quartz substrate. We analyze the extinction, photoluminesce spectra and decay kinetics of silicon nanocrystals and show that the incident and emitted light is coupled to the corresponding plasmonic mode. We demonstrate the modification of the extinction and photoluminesce spectra under the transition from wide to narrow gold stripes. The experimental extinction and photoluminescense spectra are in good agreement with theoretical calculations performed by the rigorous coupled wave analysis. We study the contribution of individual silicon nanocrystals to the overall photoluminescense intensity, depending on their spacial position inside the structure.