Hybrid Nanostructures for Enhanced Light-Harvesting: Plasmon Induced Increase in Fluorescence from Individual Photosynthetic Pigment-Protein Complexes

We studied the optical response from more than 13 000 individual photosynthetic pigment-protein complexes interacting with spherical gold nanoparticles. The nanodots were arranged in a quasi-hexagonal array by diblock copolymer micellar nanolithography. Exciting the proteins within the spectral range of the nanoparticles' plasmon resonance yields a clear enhancement of the protein fluorescence intensity, whereas excitation far out of the plasmon resonance features no effect. This result indicates a strategy for the construction of efficient hybrid light-harvesting devices.