Non Equilibrium theory of hot electron generation in plasmonic nanostructures under illumination thermal vs non thermal effects

by Yonathan Sivan

at Condensed Matter Seminar

Mon, 12 Nov 2018, 11:30
Physics building (#54) room 207

Abstract

Understanding the interplay between electrons photons and phonons is a fundamental problem in physical chemistry Recently interest in this problem resurfaced in the context of non equilibrium hot electron distributions which are key for applications such as photo catalysis sensing up conversion etc Here we report a formulation of the theory of hot electron generation in plasmonic nanostructures under continuous wave illumination taking into account non equilibrium as well as thermal effects Specifically we consider the effect of both photons and phonons on the electron distribution function and calculate self consistently the increase in electron and lattice temperatures above ambient conditions as observed experimentally This enables us to go well beyond the limits of existing theories which are limited to low illumination intensities We determine the electronic distribution and deviations from equilibrium under different conditions and evaluate the rise in electron and lattice temperatures Doing so we correct the multitude of errors in existing formulations of the problem Finally we discuss the prospect of using the hot electrons for photocatalysis in light of recent experiments and identify the efficiency and the photocatalytic performance

Created on 06-11-2018 by Bar Lev, Yevgeny (ybarlev)
Updaded on 06-11-2018 by Bar Lev, Yevgeny (ybarlev)