Engineering the spectral properties of fluorophores, such as the enhancement of luminescence intensity, can be achieved through coupling with surface plasmons in metallic nanostructures 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11. This process, referred to as metal-enhanced fluorescence, offers promise for a range of applications, including LEDs, sensor technology, microarrays and single-molecule studies. It becomes even more appealing when applied to colloidal semiconductor nanocrystals, which exhibit size-dependent optical properties, have high photochemical stability, and are characterized by broad excitation spectra and narrow emission bands 12. Other approaches have relied upon the coupling of fluorophores (typically organic dyes) to random distributions of metallic nanoparticles or nanoscale roughness in metallic films 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 8. Here, we develop a new strategy based on the highly reproducible fabrication …