Strongly modified spontaneous emission decay rate of silicon nanocrystals near semicontinuous gold films.

We investigate the spontaneous emission decay rate of Si nanocrystals modified by thin semicontinuous gold films. It has been shown that the mean and standard deviation values of decay rate distribution obtained from the photo-emission decay curve analysis increase due to the deposition of semicontinuous gold films. These values are dependent on gold film thickness and emission wavelength. The observed results are well explained using a point-dipole decay rate model considering the effective dielectric functions of the gold films that exhibit peculiar structures in the localized surface plasmon resonance region.