TY - JOUR A1 - Zhang, Fengchan A1 - Oiticica, Pedro Ramon Almeida A1 - Abad-Arredondo, Jaime A1 - Arai, Marylyn Setsuko A1 - Oliveira, Osvaldo N. A1 - Jaque, Daniel A1 - Fernandez Dominguez, Antonio I. A1 - de Camargo, Andrea Simone Stucchi A1 - Haro-González, Patricia T1 - Brownian Motion Governs the Plasmonic Enhancement of Colloidal Upconverting Nanoparticles JF - Nano Letters N2 - Upconverting nanoparticles are essential in modern photonics due to their ability to convert infrared light to visible light. Despite their significance, they exhibit limited brightness, a key drawback that can be addressed by combining them with plasmonic nanoparticles. Plasmon-enhanced upconversion has been widely demonstrated in dry environments, where upconverting nanoparticles are immobilized, but constitutes a challenge in liquid media where Brownian motion competes against immobilization. This study employs optical tweezers for the three-dimensional manipulation of an individual upconverting nanoparticle, enabling the exploration of plasmon-enhanced upconversion luminescence in water. Contrary to expectation, experiments reveal a long-range (micrometer scale) and moderate (20%) enhancement in upconversion luminescence due to the plasmonic resonances of gold nanostructures. Comparison between experiments and numerical simulations evidences the key role of Brownian motion. It is demonstrated how the three-dimensional Brownian fluctuations of the upconverting nanoparticle lead to an “average effect” that explains the magnitude and spatial extension of luminescence enhancement. KW - Upconversion KW - Plasmon enhancement KW - Optical tweezers KW - Brownian motion KW - Nanoparticles PY - 2024 UR - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:kobv:b43-603551 DO - https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.nanolett.4c00379 VL - 24 IS - 12 SP - 3785 EP - 3792 PB - American Chemical Society (ACS) AN - OPUS4-60355 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER -