Light trapping to amplify metal enhanced fluorescence with application for sensing TNT.

Metal Enhanced Fluorescence (MEF) typically produces enhancement factors of 10 to 50. By using a polymer layer as the dielectric spacer enhancements as high as 1,600 can be observed. The effect occurs with a variety of different polymers and substrates, all of which act to trap light in the dielectric layer. This allows the fabrication of sensors with improved sensitivity as demonstrated for detection of trinitrotoluene (TNT).