Magnetic field and temperature dependent photoluminescence studies on neutral and charged excitons in individual InAs quantum dots allow us to uncover different mechanisms by which the discrete quantum dot states are coupled to delocalized continuum states in a quantum well (the wetting layer). The behaviour of the neutral and singly charged excitons can be explained taking only discrete quantum dot states into account. For doubly and triply charged excitons we have to consider spin dependent coherent and incoherent interactions between discrete quantum dot states and delocalized wetting layer states.
We show that single peridinin-chlorophyll a-protein light-harvesting complexes from dinoflagellate Amphidinium carterae placed near to silver nanoparticles show strongly enhanced fluorescence emission. Single molecule spectroscopy experiments performed at room temperature point toward an enhancement of more than an order of magnitude for optimal conditions. Irrespective of the enhancement, we observe no effect of the metal nanoparticle on the fluorescence emission energy of the complex. This result provides a way to control the optical properties of biomolecules via plasmon excitations in metal nanoparticles.
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