Propagating Surface Plasmon Induced Photon Emission from Quantum Dots

We investigate the interaction between propagating surface plasmons in silver nanowires and excitons generated in quantum dots. We show propagating surface plasmons can excite excitons, which results in quantum dot emission. In this process, the energy is directly transferred from the propagating surface plasmons to the excitons without converting to photons. Furthermore, we demonstrate the reverse process where the decay of excitons generates surface plasmons.