Carbon Nanodots with Sub-Nanosecond Spontaneous Emission Lifetime.

Compared with most mature cadmium-containing quantum dots (QDs), carbon nanodots (CNDs) are a new class of colloidal nanomaterials that exhibit unique photoluminescence (PL) properties while being nontoxic and easily manufactured using low-cost precursor materials. However, solid-state CNDs exhibit poor PL quantum yields (PL-QYs) and inefficient radiative transition, which significantly hinders their practical use in optoelectronic devices. To address this issue, plasmonic nanoantennas consisting of Au nanorods (Au-NRs) deposited on a flat Au film with inserted dielectric layers were used to enhance the spontaneous emission of solid-state CNDs with broad spectral linewidth.