Fluorescence excitation enhancement by Bloch surface wave in all-polymer one-dimensional photonic structure

We demonstrate photoluminescence excitation enhancement in an all-polymer flexible one-dimensional photonic crystal structure capped with a fluorescent organic ultrathin film. When optical matching conditions between the excitation beam and the Bloch Surface Wave mode supported by the photonic structure are achieved, a ten times enhancement of the photoluminescence is observed. We notice that in these systems luminescence signal reinforcement is achieved by increasing the pump efficiency with no need of spectral resonance to the emission of the chosen fluorophore. All these features make these systems suitable candidates for easy, flexible, and cheap fluorescent sensing. (C) 2014 AIP Publishing LLC.