Fluorescence Enhancement of a Polymer Planar Waveguide Doped with Rhodamine B and Ag Nanoparticles

Planar polymer multi-model waveguides doped with Ag nano-particles and rhodamine B are fabricated and investigated by the spectroscopy analysis method as well as the M-line method. Experimental results shown that fluorescence enhancement occurs when excited by a wide band wavelength with Ag nano-particle concentration at a certain level. The maximum enhancement factor in our experiment is obtained to be about 3.8 when excited by 350nm. Our study may have potential applications in polymers optical elements, such as polymer waveguide lasers and amplifiers.