Density matrix based microscopic theory of molecule metal-nanoparticle interactions: Linear absorbance and plasmon enhancement of intermolecular excitation energy transfer

A microscopic theory of interacting molecule metal-nanoparticle (MNP) systems is presented and used to compute absorption spectra and the plasmon enhancement of intermolecular excitation energy transfer (EET). The approach is based on a nonperturbative consideration of the Coulomb coupling matrix elements responsible for EET between the molecules and the MNP. In this way, the need to determine the local fields induced by surface plasmon excitations of the MNP is removed, but the whole description is restricted to distances among the interacting species less than the wavelength of absorbed photons. Based on a density matrix theory, the approach accounts for the vibrational level structure of the molecules, intramolecular vibrational energy redistribution (IVR), and plasmon damping. Numerical results for linear absorbance spectra and EET dynamics are offered. In this respect the importance of energy dissipation in the MNP due to rapid surface plasmon decay is emphasized. (C) 2011 American Institute of Physics. [doi: 10.1063/1.3528719]