Enhanced fluorescence emission using bound states in continuum in a photonic crystal membrane

Metasurfaces are two-dimensional structures, arrays of scatterers with subwavelength separation or optically thin planar films, allowing light manipulation and enabling specific changes of optical properties, as for example beam-steering, anomalous refraction and optical-wavefront shaping. Due to the fabrication simplicity, the metasurfaces offer an alternative to 3-D metamaterials and providing a novel method for optical elements miniaturization. It has been demonstrated that a metasurface can support Bound States in Continuum (BIC), that are resonant states by zero width, due to the interaction between trapped electromagnetic. Experimentally, this involves very narrow coupled resonances, with a high Q-factor and an extremely large field intensity enhancement, up to 6 orders of magnitude larger than the intensity of the incident beam. Here, we demonstrate that the field enhancement in proximity of the surface can be applied to boost fluorescence emission of probe molecules dispersed on the surface of a photonic crystal membrane fabricated in silicon nitride. Our results provide new solutions for light manipulation at the nanoscale, especially for sensing and nonlinear optics applications.