Detection of Cd<sup>2+</sup> Ions Using Surface Plasmon Coupled Emission on Engineered Silver-α Nano Alumina Thin Film Hybrids

We report the first time fabrication of a silver-α nano alumina thin film hybrid and the observation of the Surface Plasmon Coupled Emission (SPCE) phenomenon in these substrates. We report an “8” fold enhancement in the intensity of the coupled emission signal with respect to the isotropic fluorescence signal. The coupled emission signal displayed a strong p-polarized (92%, p-polarized) output and directionality, which is in accordance with the theory of SPCE. The directionality of emission was found to have strong correlation with the theoretical modeling of minimum reflectivity calculations based on the theory of Surface Plasmon Resonance (SPR). We also report the novel extension of the fabricated substrates towards the economical and sensitive detection of toxic Cd2+ ions from aqueous solutions, which are of immense social relevance.