Enhanced Intermolecular Energy Transfer in the Vicinity of a Plasmonic Nanorice

The problem of radiationless Forster energy transfer between a donor and an acceptor molecule is studied in the vicinity of a metallic nanorice. Using a recently formulated effective medium theory, the modified dipole–dipole interaction between the molecules in the vicinity of a spheroidal metallic nanoshell can be easily formulated, from which huge enhancement of the energy transfer rate is obtained due to the resonant excitation of the bonding and the antibonding plasmonic modes of the nanoshell. Effects due to the different locations and orientations of the molecules are also studied. The results show that the plasmonic resonances depend mainly on the nanorice geometry and much less on the configuration of the molecules, whereas the enhancement is more sensitive to the relative orientations and locations of the molecules.