Enhancing the fluorescence emission by flexible metal-dielectric-metal structures

The technology of enhancing fluorescence emission can increase the sensitivity of fluorescence detection and the brightness of Light Emitting Diodes (LEDs), and is of great significance in improving the performance of light-emitting devices. Since the metal structure has a good effect in enhancing the local field and fluorescence emission, and the flexible dielectric material has flexible bendability characteristics, on the basis of above, we propose a flexible structure composed of Metal-Dielectric-Metal (MDM) to enhance the fluorescence emission. The influence of the structure on the directional emission enhancement of quantum dots is systematically studied by using the finite difference time domain method. Theoretical calculations show that the local undulations and arcs of the flexible MDM structure can promote fluorescence enhancement and increase the quantum efficiency of the quantum dots located at the center of the structure by about 7 times. They can alao change the refractive index and thickness of the dielectric to achieve the tunability of the target wavelength. At the same time, the experimental results shows that the flexible MDM structure does have a positive effect on the fluorescence enhancement. This discovery is valuable for future display technologies and flexible light-emitting devices. It is of certain guiding significance for the development and application of high-efficiency flexible devices.