DNA and Quantum Dots: All That Glitters Is Not Gold

A team of researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has shown that by bringing gold nanoparticles close to the dots and using a DNA template to control the distances, the intensity of a quantum dot's fluorescence can be predictably increased or decreased. This breakthrough opens a potential path to using quantum dots as a component in better photodetectors, chemical sensors and nanoscale lasers.

Science Daily, Jan. 25, 2013

Seung Hyeon Ko, Kan Du, J. Alexander Liddle.

Quantum-Dot Fluorescence Lifetime Engineering with DNA Origami Constructs. 

Angewandte Chemie International Edition, 2013; 52 (4): 1193 DOI:10.1002/anie.201206253