Infrared excited and visible emitting upconverting nanoparticles show potential applications in the fields of photovoltaics, and in single molecule bio-imaging. We show enhanced upconversion luminescence, of up to 50-fold, at the single particle level, via subwavelength interference of the infrared excitation and visible emission. Single particle upconverted spectra and time-resolved decay, correlated with AFM, show enhanced emission at 545nm and 650 nm, whereby the magnitude of the enhancement is dependent on the thickness of the interference layer, and on the excitation intensity. We correlate our experimental results with finite element modeling showing both enhanced excitation and emission as a function of the interference layer thickness.
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