Optical Read Out of Nanoparticle Fluorescence Using Supercontinuum Generation for Optical Data Storage

Spectral features of a photonic crystal fiber generated supercontinuum were used in the optical read out of nanoparticle fluorescence. Three nanoparticles, in this case colloidal semiconductor quantum dots, were synthesized to produce particles with different fluorescence spectra. The quantum dots were then randomly dispersed into a polymer matrix. It was observed that three color fluorescence signals can be measured by the excitation by supercontinuum.