Photon upconversion with hot carriers in plasmonic systems

Journal Article · 29 September 2015 · Applied Physics Letters

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4932127 · OSTI ID:1370711

Naik, Gururaj V. ^[1]; Dionne, Jennifer A. ^[1]

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1. Stanford Univ., CA (United States). Materials Science and Engineering

In this paper, we propose a scheme of photon upconversion based on harnessing the energy of plasmonic hot carriers. Low-energy photons excite hot electrons and hot holes in a plasmonic nanoparticle, which are then injected into an adjacent semiconductor quantum well where they radiatively recombine to emit a photon of higher energy. We theoretically study the proposed upconversion scheme using Fermi-liquid theory and determine the internal quantum efficiency of upconversion to be as high as 25% in 5 nm silver nanocubes. This upconversion scheme is linear in its operation, does not require coherent illumination, offers spectral tunability, and is more efficient than conventional upconverters.

• Research Organization: Energy Frontier Research Centers (EFRC), Washington D.C. (United States). Light-Material Interactions in Energy Conversion (LMI)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES) (SC-22)
• Grant/Contract Number: SC0001293
• OSTI ID: 1370711
• Journal Information: Applied Physics Letters, Journal Name: Applied Physics Letters Journal Issue: 13 Vol. 107; ISSN 0003-6951; ISSN APPLAB
• Publisher: American Institute of Physics (AIP)Copyright Statement
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English