Enhancement of upconversion luminescence of Er doped Al2O3 films by Ag island films

Strong enhancement of upconversion photoluminescence (PL) of Er3+ in the visible range was achieved by placing it near rough Ag island films. In order to understand the mechanism of the enhancement, PL was excited by 978 and 488 nm light and the enhancement factors were obtained in a wide spectral range (520 nm to 1.6 mu m). The emission and excitation wavelength dependence of the enhancement factors revealed that both the incident electric fields and the radiative decay rate of Er3+ are enhanced due to the excitation of surface plasmons supported by Ag islands. It was found that the upconversion PL is more sensitive to the enhancement of the incident electric field than the downconversion PL because of the multiphoton absorption process. The present result indicates that the upconversion PL obtains more benefit from the metal-enhanced fluorescence technique than the downconversion PL. (C) 2008 American Institute of Physics.