Review
Chemistry, Multidisciplinary
Sushant Kumar, Adela Habib, Ravishankar Sundararaman
Summary: Metal nanostructures efficiently capture light and generate high-energy electrons and holes for driving chemical reactions or transferring across metal-semiconductor interfaces. The overall efficiency of hot-carrier devices depends on the energy distribution, its evolution during transport through the metal, and most critically, on the transport across the metal surface or interface.
TRENDS IN CHEMISTRY
(2021)
Article
Chemistry, Multidisciplinary
Yoel Negrin-Montecelo, Artur Movsesyan, Jie Gao, Sven Burger, Zhiming M. Wang, Sylvain Nlate, Emilie Pouget, Reiko Oda, Miguel Comesana-Hermo, Alexander O. Govorov, Miguel A. Correa-Duarte
Summary: Mastering chirality at the nanoscale is important for scientists in various fields. Recently, researchers have proposed the use of chiral plasmonic nanostructures in photocatalysis to drive polarization-dependent photochemistry. In this study, inorganic nanometric chiral templates were used to assemble gold and titanium dioxide nanoparticles, leading to the formation of plasmon-based photocatalysts with polarization-dependent reactivity. This approach opens up new possibilities for applications in chirality and photocatalysis, particularly in plasmon-induced chiral photochemistry.
JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN CHEMICAL SOCIETY
(2022)
Article
Nanoscience & Nanotechnology
Miguel Martinez-Calderon, Baptiste Groussin, Victoria Bjelland, Eric Chevallay, Valentin N. Fedosseev, Marcel Himmerlich, Pierre Lorenz, Alejandro Manjavacas, Bruce A. Marsh, Holger Neupert, Ralf E. Rossel, Walter Wuensch, Eduardo Granados
Summary: This research proposes the use of direct-laser nanostructuring techniques on copper substrates to improve the efficiency and robustness of electron photoinjectors. By exciting localized surface plasmons, hot electrons are generated, leading to a significant increase in quantum efficiency. When combined with semiconductor thin-films, the efficiency is further enhanced.
Article
Chemistry, Physical
Min Huang, Xian Wang, Guanjie Xing, Chenchen Meng, Yunchao Li, Xiaohong Li, Louzhen Fan, Yan Wan, Shihe Yang
Summary: This study demonstrates the enhanced oxygen evolution reaction (OER) by CuS nanodisks (NDs) under illumination, achieved by generating abundant hot holes through localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) damping. This marks the first report on direct utilization of plasmonic hot holes in CuS nanomaterials to boost OER performance, providing a new pathway for designing NIR-active photocatalysts/electrocatalysts based on unique LSPR properties.
JOURNAL OF PHYSICAL CHEMISTRY LETTERS
(2021)
Article
Nanoscience & Nanotechnology
Andrey Sushko, Kristiaan De Greve, Madeleine Phillips, Bernhard Urbaszek, Andrew Y. Joe, Kenji Watanabe, Takashi Taniguchi, Alexander L. Efros, C. Stephen Hellberg, Hongkun Park, Philip Kim, Mikhail D. Lukin
Summary: Transition metal dichalcogenide (TMD) semiconductor heterostructures are being actively explored as a new platform for quantum optoelectronic systems. The use of insulating hexagonal boron nitride (hBN) in state-of-the-art devices is crucial for proper device operation and interface cleanliness. Through experimental investigation, large through-hBN photocurrents generated by optical excitation in hBN encapsulated MoSe2 and WSe2 monolayer devices have been observed, providing important implications for the design of optoelectronic devices based on encapsulated TMD devices.
Article
Materials Science, Multidisciplinary
Dominic Bosomtwi, Marek Osinski, Viktoriia E. Babicheva
Summary: This study presents a nanostructure design that enhances the generation of plasmonic hot electrons through periodically arranged gold nanoelectrodes. By adjusting the shape, size, material, and refractive index of nanoparticles, higher efficiency can be achieved.
OPTICAL MATERIALS EXPRESS
(2021)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Fangze Liu, Siraj Sidhik, Mark A. Hoffbauer, Sina Lewis, Amanda J. Neukirch, Vitaly Pavlenko, Hsinhan Tsai, Wanyi Nie, Jacky Even, Sergei Tretiak, Pulickel M. Ajayan, Mercouri G. Kanatzidis, Jared J. Crochet, Nathan A. Moody, Jean-Christophe Blancon, Aditya D. Mohite
Summary: Electron sources are crucial in various applications, and this study presents an efficient, regenerative, and cost-effective electron source based on solution-processed halide perovskite thin films with a quantum efficiency of up to 2.2% and a lifetime exceeding 25 hours.
NATURE COMMUNICATIONS
(2021)
Article
Physics, Multidisciplinary
Shengxiang Wu, Yu Chen, Shiwu Gao
Summary: The study presents a model to describe vibrational excitation and bond dissociation induced by plasmonic hot carriers and finds that nonthermal electrons in the high energy region can provide an efficient and dominant channel for photodissociation, especially in the quantum plasmon regime. The model captures the wavelength dependence and reproduces enhancement factors observed in experiments for oxygen dissociation on silver nanoparticles, paving the way for harvesting nonthermal plasmonic energy for photocatalysis in the quantum regime.
PHYSICAL REVIEW LETTERS
(2022)
Article
Chemistry, Physical
Heeyoung Kim, Hyewon Park, Mincheol Kang, Jeong Young Park
Summary: Plasmonic photoelectrochemical (PEC) water splitting has attracted great interest due to its ability to overcome the limitations of semiconductors in terms of light absorption. In this study, a Pt/Ag/TiO2 metal-semiconductor Schottky nanodiode was designed and fabricated as a photoanode to investigate the role of plasmonic hot carriers in plasmonic water splitting. By combining the designed PEC cell system with the nanodiode, it was demonstrated that the plasmonic hot carriers from Ag played a decisive role in the enhancement of photocatalytic efficiency by contributing to the oxygen evolution reaction.
JOURNAL OF CHEMICAL PHYSICS
(2022)
Article
Chemistry, Multidisciplinary
Pin-Tian Lyu, Li-Xin Yin, Yi-Ting Shen, Zhaoshuai Gao, Hong-Yuan Chen, Jing-Juan Xu, Bin Kang
Summary: The confined electromagnetic field in optical cavities, known as plasmonic cavity-catalysis, provides a promising method for manipulating catalytic sites and rates. Through controlling the standing hot carrier waves in plasmonic cavities, periodic catalytic hotspots can be formed and well tuned by cavity geometry, charge density, and excitation angle. Plasmonic cavity-catalysis exhibits significantly higher catalytic activity compared to conventional plasmonic catalysis. It is demonstrated that the locally concentrated, long-lived hot carriers in the standing wave mode underlie the formation of the catalytic hotspots. This new approach may expand the frontier of heterogeneous catalysis.
JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN CHEMICAL SOCIETY
(2023)
Article
Chemistry, Multidisciplinary
Jacob Pettine, Sean M. Meyer, Fabio Medeghini, Catherine J. Murphy, David J. Nesbitt
Summary: The spatial and momentum distributions of excited charge carriers in nanoplasmonic systems are sensitively dependent on optical excitation parameters and nanoscale geometry, which in turn control the efficiency and functionality of plasmon-enhanced catalysts, photovoltaics, and nanocathodes. Differentiating between volume- vs surface-mediated excitation in such systems has been emphasized, with experiments showing that resonantly excited nanorods primarily emit electrons through their sides due to volume field enhancement regions. Optical control over photoelectron angular distributions has been demonstrated through a screening-induced transition from volume to surface photoemission with red detuning of the excitation laser.
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Judit Budai, Zsuzsanna Papa, Peter Petrik, Peter Dombi
Summary: The study experimentally demonstrates the appearance of non-thermal electron population in the topmost domain of plasmonic film upon optical excitation of surface plasmon polaritons. Using spectroscopic ellipsometry, researchers obtain in-depth information about surface plasmon-induced changes in directly related electron occupancies.
NATURE COMMUNICATIONS
(2022)
Article
Chemistry, Multidisciplinary
Shenyi Ding, Jixiang Zhang, Cui Liu, Nian Li, Shudong Zhang, Zhenyang Wang, Min Xi
Summary: In this study, gold nanospheres (Au NSs) and gold nanorods (Au NRs) were synthesized and developed into nanofilms with poly(vinylidene fluoride) (PVDF). Solar photothermal experiments showed that Au NR/PVDF nanofilm exhibited higher solar photothermal performance than Au NS/PVDF nanofilm. Detailed analysis revealed that plasmonic coupling effects inside the aggregated Au NR nanodusters contributed to spectral blue shifts and intensified the photothermal performance, resulting in higher light-to-heat conversion rate for Au NR/PVDF nanofilm.
Article
Physics, Applied
Krishna Chand Maurya, Vincenzo Caligiuri, Ashalatha Indiradevi Kamalasanan Pillai, Magnus Garbrecht, Roman Krahne, Bivas Saha
Summary: Ferrell and Berreman modes are absorption resonances in thin metal films and polar-dielectric media that arise from radiative bulk plasmon-polariton and phonon-polariton excitations. They provide a unique pathway for light-matter interactions.
APPLIED PHYSICS LETTERS
(2023)
Article
Chemistry, Physical
Wei Zhang, Tianxing Zheng, Bin Ai, Panpan Gu, Yuduo Guan, Yu Wang, Zhiyuan Zhao, Gang Zhang
Summary: Au-P-Au-coupled gold nanoparticle platforms with multiple nanogaps were fabricated using nanoskiving and polymer-assisted assembly. The platform showed strong electric field enhancement due to the confinement of incident light, leading to significant surface-enhanced Raman scattering performance and sensitive detection of glucose.
APPLIED SURFACE SCIENCE
(2022)
Article
Chemistry, Physical
Alexander Uskov, Jacob B. Khurgin, Igor Smetanin, Igor E. Protsenko, Nikolay Nikonorov
Summary: The Landau damping mechanism for the decay of localized surface plasmons in hybrid nanoplasmonic structures has been studied. The strength of Landau damping is found to be strongly influenced by the permittivity and electron effective mass in the dielectric shell, resulting in an order of magnitude enhancement for certain combinations of these parameters. The dominant contribution to Landau damping in these hybrid structures is identified as the transition absorption at the metal-dielectric interface. This research has important implications for engineering decay rates and hot carrier production for applications such as photodetection and photochemistry.
JOURNAL OF PHYSICAL CHEMISTRY LETTERS
(2022)
Article
Chemistry, Physical
Aoxue Han, Jerome Moloney, Viktoriia E. Babicheva
Summary: Periodic nanoparticle arrays have the ability to achieve narrow resonances and tune the resonance position. Multipole decomposition is commonly used to study the interaction of electromagnetic waves with these arrays. However, the validity and accuracy of multipole decomposition near lattice resonances have not been examined. This study demonstrates the applicability of exact multipole decomposition and shows that a small number of multipoles are sufficient to accurately represent the results around lattice resonances.
JOURNAL OF CHEMICAL PHYSICS
(2022)
Article
Physics, Multidisciplinary
Igor E. Protsenko, Alexander V. Uskov
Summary: A laser model based on quantum harmonic oscillators is formulated, analyzing the emitters in the low lasing states and the emitters in the upper states, as well as the photon number fluctuations of the lasing mode and the fluctuations of the population of the lasing states. Collective Rabi splitting peaks are predicted in the intensity fluctuation spectra of the superradiant lasers. Population fluctuation mechanisms in superradiant lasers and lasers without superradiance are discussed and compared.
ANNALEN DER PHYSIK
(2023)
Article
Materials Science, Multidisciplinary
Alexander V. Uskov, Igor V. Smetanin, Igor E. Protsenko, Morten Willatzen, Nikolay V. Nikonorov
Summary: The Tamm states at the metal-semiconductor interface play a significant role in hot electron generation and Landau damping. Proper selection of semiconductor materials with Tamm surface states can engineer decay rates and hot carrier production for important applications.
ADVANCED OPTICAL MATERIALS
(2023)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Igor E. Protsenko, Alexander V. Uskov
Summary: In this study, the spectra of small Fabry-Perot interferometers (FPIs) of similar size to the wavelength are investigated when excited by a quantum field from a nano-LED or a laser. A convenient model for the interaction between the FPI and the quantum field is formulated, and novel explicit expressions for the field and photon number fluctuation spectra inside and outside the FPI are provided. The results show significant differences in spectra for different fields and note the presence of asymmetries. Additionally, negative and oscillating second-order time auto-correlation functions are calculated for the FPI field under certain conditions.
Article
Optics
Vahid Karimi, Viktoriia E. Babicheva
Summary: We studied how periodic lattices influence the optical characteristics of silicon and titanium nanoparticle arrays. Our approach involved calculations for finite-size arrays as well as lattice sums for infinite arrays. Our model showed that the convergence to the infinite-lattice limit is faster for broad resonances and that a higher number of nanoparticles is needed for convergence. We also observed that lattice resonances related to higher diffraction orders reach the infinite-array limit more quickly. This research highlights the advantages of using a periodic arrangement of lossy nanoparticles in enhancing the response of transition metals.
Review
Chemistry, Multidisciplinary
Viktoriia E. E. Babicheva
Summary: Plasmonics is a revolutionary concept in nanophotonics that combines the properties of both photonics and electronics by confining light energy to a nanometer-scale oscillating field of free electrons. It holds promise for various applications including optical communications, biophotonics, sensing, chemistry, and medical applications. Surface plasmons enable the development of advanced photonic designs with unprecedented capabilities, such as subwavelength waveguides, optical nanoresonators, super- and hyper-lenses, and light concentrators. This review highlights the optical processes and advancements in plasmonic applications, with a focus on field enhancement and collective effects in nanostructures.
Article
Chemistry, Multidisciplinary
Dominic Bosomtwi, Viktoriia E. Babicheva
Summary: In this work, we report on the design of a layered hybrid plasmonic-dielectric metasurface that facilitates strong mode coupling and the formation of bound states in the continuum (BIC), resulting in resonances with a high quality factor. We demonstrate the possibility of controlling Fano resonances and tuning Rabi splitting using the nanoantenna dimensions. We also experimentally demonstrate the generalized Kerker effect in a binary arrangement of silicon nanodisks, which allows for the tuning of the collective modes and creates new photonic functionalities and improved sensing capabilities.
Article
Materials Science, Multidisciplinary
Sakibul Islam, Viktoriia E. Babicheva
Summary: Localized plasmonic resonances in isolated nanoparticles are weak, but collective resonances emerge when nanoparticles are arranged in a periodic lattice. This study investigates lattice resonances in nanoantenna arrays made of lossy materials, such as Ti, W, and Ge, and explores practical scenarios in laboratory measurements and nanofabrication processes. The lattice resonances can be tuned for various applications, including sensing, by changing the refractive index of substrate and superstrate materials and considering different surrounding environments.
Review
Physics, Multidisciplinary
M. Yu. Kagan, S. V. Aksenov, A. V. Turlapov, R. Sh. Ikhsanov, K. I. Kugel, E. A. Mazur, E. A. Kuznetsov, V. M. Silkin, E. A. Burovski
Summary: This review focuses on the studies of inhomogeneous Fermi-Bose mixtures with superconducting clusters or droplets in various systems, including bismuth oxides, thin films of dirty metals, mixtures and dipole gases, magnetic traps, exciton and plasmon systems, charge screening in MgB2, shock-wave experiments in metallic hydrogen and metal hydrides, and Aharonov-Bohm interference rings. These systems exhibit novel phenomena such as formation and collapse of Bose-Einstein condensate droplets, emergence of Fano resonances, and presence of edge Majorana modes.
Article
Chemistry, Physical
Renat Sh. Ikhsanov, Igor E. Protsenko, Igor V. Smetanin, Nikolay V. Nikonorov, Alexander V. Uskov
Summary: The concepts of local and global photoemission directivity patterns for plasmonic nanoparticles of arbitrary shape are introduced, and their relationship is established. Formulas for the local photoemission directionality pattern are obtained for different mechanisms and field distributions in plasmonic modes inside nanoparticles. The calculated patterns for spherical nanoparticles with excited dipole or quadruple plasmonic modes show qualitative differences between surface and volume photoemission, and also among different plasmonic modes. These findings have potential applications in various plasmonic devices and technologies, including nanostructured photocathodes, photodetectors, and plasmonic photocatalysis.
JOURNAL OF PHYSICAL CHEMISTRY C
(2023)
Article
Optics
Md sakibul Islam, Viktoriia e. Babicheva
Summary: This study designs iron pyrite antennas and demonstrates the effective manipulation of emissivity peaks in the metasurface through controlled lattice resonances and antenna design, offering promising avenues for mid-infrared spectral engineering.
Editorial Material
Materials Science, Multidisciplinary
Alex Krasnok, Viktoriia Babicheva, Carsten Rockstuhl
Summary: This feature issue focuses on the Physics of Complex Photonic Media and Metamaterials, including a collection of nine manuscripts that discuss the development, characterization, control, and applications of various complex photonic media and metamaterials.
OPTICAL MATERIALS EXPRESS
(2023)
Article
Optics
Igor E. Protsenko, Alexander Uskov, Nikolay Nikonorov
Summary: This study investigates the surface photoemission (SPE) and volume photoemission (VPE) from metal nanoparticles into semiconductor environments with different potential barrier heights at the metal-semiconductor interface. The results show that the internal quantum efficiency of SPE is several times higher than VPE when the barrier height decreases and the contact approaches an ohmic one. The calculations take into account the discontinuities in electron effective mass and dielectric functions at the interface. These findings are significant for efficient generation of hot electrons from metal nanostructures for applications such as photocatalysis and water splitting.
JOURNAL OF RUSSIAN LASER RESEARCH
(2022)