Past exam of the MPhil in micro- and nanotechnology enterprise course of the University of Cambridge / 2019 / Paper 2 / Section A(i) / 14 / iii / Solution

Place the Ag particles near the emitting shell, along the outer sidewalls or accessible shell at the base. Its $690\mathrm{nm}$ emission is close to the $680\mathrm{nm}$ localized surface plasmon resonance; the $615\mathrm{nm}$ core emission is more detuned and farther from an externally placed particle. The plasmon near field decays with distance, so the local emitter-field overlap matters as well as spectral overlap. A thin spacer can reduce direct-contact nonradiative quenching.

These facts identify a favourable placement for enhanced interaction; they do not by themselves prove the spectroscopic strong-coupling regime, which additionally requires coherent coupling to exceed the relevant losses and normally produces resolvable mode splitting.