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Fluorescence quenching near small metal nanoparticles

We develop a microscopic model for fluorescence of a molecule (or semiconductor quantum dot) near a small metal nanoparticle. When a molecule is situated close to metal surface, its fluorescence is quenched due to energy transfer to the metal. We perform quantum-mechanical calculations of energy transfer rates for nanometer-sized Au nanoparticles and find that non-local and quantum-size effects significantly enhance dissipation in metal as compared to those predicted by semiclassical electromagnetic models. However, the dependence of transfer rates on molecule's distance to metal nanoparticle surface, $d$, is significantly weaker than the $d^{-4}$ behavior for flat metal surface with a sharp boundary predicted by previous calculations within random phase approximation.