Fluorescence in the presence of metallic hole arrays

We show that the transmission of light through metallic hole arrays supported by a glass substrate can be tuned by depositing a controlled number of Langmuir–Blodgett layers on top of the hole array. Enhanced transmission is achieved when the number of overlayers is such that the surface plasmon-polariton modes on the two sides of the metal hole array have matched wavevectors. Dye molecules introduced into some of these overlayers allow us to explore the relationship between molecular fluorescence and the transmission properties of the structure, through measurement of the fluorescence lifetime of the molecules. We find there to be little change in the fluorescence lifetime between enhanced and non-enhanced transmission regimes and offer an explanation of our findings in terms of changes in the photonic mode density.