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Harvesting Sub-Bandgap IR Photons by Photothermionic Hot Electron Transfer in a Plasmonic p-n Junction.
- Source :
-
Nano letters [Nano Lett] 2021 May 12; Vol. 21 (9), pp. 4036-4043. Date of Electronic Publication: 2021 Apr 20. - Publication Year :
- 2021
-
Abstract
- Plasmonic semiconductors are an emerging class of low-cost plasmonic materials, and the presence of a bandgap and band-bending in these materials offer new opportunities to overcome some of the limitations of plasmonic metals. Here, we demonstrate that in a plasmonic p-n heterojunction (Cu <subscript>2-x</subscript> Se-CdSe) the near-IR excitation (1.1 eV) of the hole plasmon in the p-Cu <subscript>2- x </subscript> Se phase results in rapid hot electron transfer to n-CdSe, with an energy 2.2 eV above the Fermi level. This hot electron generation and energy upconversion process can be well-described by a photothermionic mechanism, where the presence of a bandgap in p-Cu <subscript>2- x </subscript> Se facilitates the generation of energetic photothermal electrons. The lifetime of the transferred electrons in Cu <subscript>2- x </subscript> Se-CdSe can reach ∼130 ps, which is nearly 100× longer than that of its metal-semiconductor counterpart. This result demonstrates a novel approach for harvesting the sub-bandgap near IR photons using plasmonic p-n junctions and the potential advantages of plasmonic semiconductors for hot carrier-based devices.
Details
- Language :
- English
- ISSN :
- 1530-6992
- Volume :
- 21
- Issue :
- 9
- Database :
- MEDLINE
- Journal :
- Nano letters
- Publication Type :
- Academic Journal
- Accession number :
- 33877837
- Full Text :
- https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.nanolett.1c00932