"In this project, surface plasmon enhancement of emission from discrete active organic 1-D photonic nanostructures will be investigated as a means to enhancing the performance and electrical integration potential of miniaturized organic emissive devices. To this end, nobel metal (e.g., silver or gold) nanoparticles (NPs) which can support surface plasmons will be brought into close proximity (5 - 20 nm) to a light emitting conjugated polymer nanowire. The distance between the nanoparticle and the nanowire will be controlled using a dielectric spacer layer. Rational techniques for optically exciting and detecting plasmon resonances and surface plasmon meditated luminescence in the polymer nanostructures will also be developed. Enhancement of radiative and non-radiative decay rates in the emissive conjugated polymer as a function of metal-emitter separation distance will be studied. In addition, the emission intensity enhancement factor will be studied as a function of dipole orientation (i.e., molecular alignment) within the polymer nanowire. In addition, finite-difference time domain (FDTD) simulations of the electric field intensity generated by plane wave illumination will be used to obtain maps of the radiative decay rate enhancement of an organic nanowire near a small metal nanoparticle. The project will draw on core expertise of the researcher in organic active nanowire photonic devices and combine this expertise with the vast experience of the host groups at Caltech and University Louis Pasteur – Strasbourg in passive and active plasmonic devices. The organic plasmon enhanced photonic devices are likely to exhibit comparable performance, be of lower cost and be simpler to manufacture than their inorganic counterparts."