| With the advancement of nanofabrication techniques, nanoscale electronics and optoelectronics research has quickly matured into a field that has large impacts on science and technology. Biosensors, photovoltaics, electroluminescence, photoluminescence, electronic memory, photonic crystals, and nano-antennae are a sample of the many areas where a better understanding of nanoscale physics can yield efficiency enhancements, lower fabrication costs, and an increase in the variety of properties of existing materials.;In this work I probe the interaction between polymers and nanoparticles. Our observations of field effects from silver nanoparticle surface plasmon excitations are discussed. Photoluminescence of conjugated polymer films were modified and the distance dependence of the surface plasmon evanescent field and energy transfer has been investigated with the largest enhancement in photoluminescence observed at a 40 nm distance separation between the fluorophore and the surface plasmon. A spectrum of surface plasmon resonances ranging from the emission to the absorption energies of the conjugated polymer revealed largest enhancements when the resonance was tuned to the conjugated polymer emission energy.;We also dispersed gold nanoparticles into a conducting polymer matrix to form non-volatile resistive electronic memory. This structure was examined using admittance spectroscopy and temperature dependence which yielded on-off ratios ranging from 1 to 4 orders of magnitude. The frequency dependence of the devices indicates space-charge-limited transport and the larger dc capacitance of the on state indicates that a greater amount of filling of the midgap nanoparticle trap levels, increasing the overall device conductivity and leading to the memory effect. |
