{"title":"Seeded-Surface Plasmonic Nanocavity with Enhanced Field Localization for Exciton–Plasmon Coupling","authors":"Lin Luo,Xin Shu,Xiaobo Han,Liang Ma,Xiaohong Li","doi":"10.1021/acs.jpcc.6c03611","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jpcc.6c03611","url":null,"abstract":"Achieving strong light–matter interaction in monolayer transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDCs) at room temperature requires plasmonic nanocavities with extreme field confinement and minimized mode volume. Although conventional nanoparticle-on-mirror (NPoM) cavities support strong gap-mode plasmon confinement, further compression of the electromagnetic field is desirable for enhancing exciton–plasmon interactions with smaller excitonic ensembles. Here, we developed a seeded-surface NPoM (SS-NPoM) nanocavity consisting of a 50 nm Au nanocube decorated with 10 nm Au nanospheres, separated from an Au mirror by a 10 nm Al2O3 spacer and integrated with monolayer WS2. The surface nanoseeds introduce additional nanoscale protrusions that redistribute and compress the gap-plasmon field into highly localized subhotspots. Dark-field scattering measurements revealed a systematic detuning-dependent anticrossing with mode splitting of 106 meV. Because this value is comparable to the stringent loss-based threshold, the system is conservatively classified as operating in an intermediate-coupling regime close to the onset of strong coupling. Quasinormal-mode calculations show that surface seeding can reduce the optical mode volume by 1 order of magnitude, corresponding to an estimated minimum of ∼14 coupled excitons in the most strongly confined configuration. Experimentally, the area-corrected photoluminescence enhancement reaches ∼690, compared with ∼220 for conventional NPoM cavities. These results demonstrate that seeded-surface engineering provides an effective strategy for constructing highly localized plasmonic nanocavities and offers a promising platform for room-temperature TMDC polaritonics and efficient nanoscale light sources.","PeriodicalId":61,"journal":{"name":"The Journal of Physical Chemistry C","volume":"11 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.126,"publicationDate":"2026-10-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149152182","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"化学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Guanhao Liu,Ryutaro Komatsu,Kazushi Enomoto,Retno Miranti,Yong-Jin Pu
{"title":"Largely Negative\u0000Energy Difference between the Singlet\u0000and Triplet Excited States and Ultrafast Delayed Fluorescence","authors":"Guanhao Liu,Ryutaro Komatsu,Kazushi Enomoto,Retno Miranti,Yong-Jin Pu","doi":"10.1021/acs.jpcc.6c05966","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jpcc.6c05966","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract Molecules exhibiting inversion of the lowest singlet and triplet excited states, referred to as inverted singlet–triplet (IST) molecules, can show a short delayed lifetime below 1 μs and are therefore promising candidates for next-generation emitters in organic light-emitting diodes. However, the structural factors that govern this inversion remain insufficiently understood, limiting the rational molecular design of compounds with tunable photophysical properties. Here, we analyzed the relationships between excited-state energy levels and frontier molecular-orbital energy levels in heptazine derivatives. The results indicate that degenerate HOMOs and LUMOs are key factors for reducing ΔEST through enhanced mixing of multiple excitation configurations, whereas phenyl groups slightly increase ΔEST by enhancing the exchange interaction, K. Wave function-based quantum chemical calculations using EOM-CCSD estimated large negative ΔEST values of −0.244 eV and −0.238 eV for the heptazine derivatives, HzDA3 and HzTFE3, respectively. Temperature-dependent time-resolved photoluminescence, together with the onsets analysis of photoluminescence and phosphorescence spectra, confirmed their negative ΔEST values. HzDA3 and HzTFE3 exhibited fast reverse intersystem crossing rate constants exceeding 107 s–1, resulting in ultrafast delayed lifetimes of 76 and 341 ns, respectively. These results clarify the key factors governing inverted singlet–triplet (IST) gap in heptazine derivatives and provide a basis for the development of IST molecules.","PeriodicalId":61,"journal":{"name":"The Journal of Physical Chemistry C","volume":"7 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.126,"publicationDate":"2026-10-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149151176","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"化学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}