Hot-electron generation in plasmonic nanostructures with hot spots: Quantum mechanisms

ORAL

Abstract

Generation of energetic (hot) electrons is an intrinsic property of any plasmonic nanostructure under illumination. Simultaneously, a striking advantage of metal nanocrystals over semiconductors lies in their very large absorption cross sections. Therefore, metal nanostructures with strong and tailored plasmonic resonances are very attractive for photocatalytic applications in which excited electrons play an important role. However, the central question in this problem is to quantify the number of hot electrons in a nanocrystal. Here we develop a theory describing the energy distributions of hot electrons in nanocrystals with various geometries [1-4]. In particular, we show that nanostructures with strong plasmonic hot spots generate unusually large numbers of hot electrons, which can be observed using ultra-fast spectroscopy, [2,4] and photochemistry.
A.O. Govorov, H. Zhang, V. Demir, and Y. K. Gun’ko, NanoToday 9, 85 (2014).
H. Harutyunyan, et al., Nat. Nanotech. (2015).
L.V. Besteiro, X.-T. Kong, Z. Wang, G. V. Hartland, A.O. Govorov, ACS Photonics, DOI: 10.1021/acsphotonics.7b00751 (2017).
M. E. Sykes, J. W. Stewart, G. M. Akselrod, X.-T. Kong, Z. Wang, D. J. Gosztola, A.B.F. Martinson, D. Rosenmann, M. H. Mikkelsen, A. O. Govorov, G. P. Wiederrecht, Nat. Commun. 8, 986 (2017).

–

Presenters

  • Alexander Govorov

    Ohio Univ, Department of Physics and Astronomy, Ohio University, Ohio University, Physics and Astronomy, Ohio University

Authors

  • Alexander Govorov

    Ohio Univ, Department of Physics and Astronomy, Ohio University, Ohio University, Physics and Astronomy, Ohio University

  • Lucas Vazquez Besteiro

    University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Institute of Fundamental and Frontier Sciences, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Institute of Fundamental and Frontier Sciences

  • Xiang-Tian Kong

    University of Electronic Science and Technology of China

  • Zhiming Wang

    UESTC China, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Paul Scherrer Institute

  • Gary Wiederrecht

    Argonne National Laboratory