ScholarWorks@동국대학교

초록

Organic semiconductors with strong photoluminescence and anisotropic optical waveguiding characteristics are attractive for the development of integrated nano- and microscale photonic systems. Among them, rubrene is remarkable due to its exceptional photoluminescence (PL) quantum yield and directional crystal packing. However, subsequent propagation losses—primarily from exciton quenching, reabsorption, and photon scattering—remain a critical challenge. Here, we report a robust strategy to overcome these intrinsic limitations through plasmonic coupling. We have synthesized rubrene microrods decorated with uniformly distributed silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) enabling localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) and generate strong near-field enhancement at the semiconductor–metal interface. Structural and crystallographic analyses confirm the well-aligned morphology of rubrene microrods and the homogeneously distributed AgNPs on the surface. The plasmonic hybrid system exhibits a ∼3.5-fold enhancement in PL intensity and a fourfold reduction in exciton lifetime, indicating accelerated radiative exciton recombination via LSPR coupling. Optical waveguiding measurements reveal a substantial decrease in propagation loss coefficients from 0.243 to 0.136 μm−1 at 568 nm, and from 0.191 to 0.122 μm−1 at 642 nm, demonstrating improved photonic transport. Finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) simulations further corroborate the plasmon-enhanced field confinement and extended propagation length. This study demonstrates that strategic plasmonic functionalization of 1D organic semiconductors offers a powerful route to overcome intrinsic optical limitations for high-performance optoelectronic platforms. © 2026 Elsevier B.V.

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