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Title: Theoretical predictions for hot-carrier generation from surface plasmon decay

Journal Article · · Nature Communications
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1038/ncomms6788· OSTI ID:1457531
 [1];  [2];  [3];  [4];  [2]
  1. California Inst. of Technology (CalTech), Pasadena, CA (United States). Joint Center for Artificial Photosynthesis (JCAP)
  2. California Inst. of Technology (CalTech), Pasadena, CA (United States). Joint Center for Artificial Photosynthesis (JCAP) and Thomas J. Watson Laboratories of Applied Physics
  3. California Inst. of Technology (CalTech), Pasadena, CA (United States). Joint Center for Artificial Photosynthesis (JCAP) and Division of Physics, Mathematics and Astronomy
  4. California Inst. of Technology (CalTech), Pasadena, CA (United States). Joint Center for Artificial Photosynthesis (JCAP) and Materials and Process Simulation Center

Decay of surface plasmons to hot carriers finds a wide variety of applications in energy conversion, photocatalysis and photodetection. However, a detailed theoretical description of plasmonic hot-carrier generation in real materials has remained incomplete. Here we report predictions for the prompt distributions of excited 'hot' electrons and holes generated by plasmon decay, before inelastic relaxation, using a quantized plasmon model with detailed electronic structure. We find that carrier energy distributions are sensitive to the electronic band structure of the metal: gold and copper produce holes hotter than electrons by 1-2 eV, while silver and aluminium distribute energies more equitably between electrons and holes. Momentum-direction distributions for hot carriers are anisotropic, dominated by the plasmon polarization for aluminium and by the crystal orientation for noble metals. We show that in thin metallic films intraband transitions can alter the carrier distributions, producing hotter electrons in gold, but interband transitions remain dominant.

Research Organization:
California Institute of Technology (CalTech), Pasadena, CA (United States). Joint Center for Artificial Photosynthesis (JCAP)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC)
Grant/Contract Number:
SC0004993
OSTI ID:
1457531
Journal Information:
Nature Communications, Vol. 5, Issue 1; ISSN 2041-1723
Publisher:
Nature Publishing GroupCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 549 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

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