TY - JOUR
T1 - Dynamics of Hot Carriers in Plasmonic Heterostructures
AU - Bykov, Anton
AU - Roth, Diane
AU - Sartorello, Giovanni
AU - Salmon-Gamboa, Jorge
AU - Zayats, Anatoly
N1 - Funding Information:
Research funding: This work was supported by EPSRC (UK) under the Reactive Plasmonics Programme grant (EP/M013812/1).
Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 Anton Yu. Bykov et al., published by De Gruyter, Berlin/Boston 2021.
PY - 2021/9/1
Y1 - 2021/9/1
N2 - Understanding and optimising the mechanisms of generation and extraction of hot carriers in plasmonic heterostructures is important for applications in new types of photodetectors, photochemistry and photocatalysis, as well as nonlinear optics. Here, we show using transient dynamic measurements that the relaxation of the excited hot-carriers in Au/Pt hetero-nanostructures is accelerated through the transfer pathway from Au, where they are generated, to Pt nanoparticles, which act as a hot-electron sink. The influence of the environment on the dynamics was also demonstrated. The time-resolved photoluminescence measurements confirm the modified hot-electron dynamics, revealing quenching of the photoluminescence signal from Au nanoparticles in the presence of Pt and an increased photoluminescence lifetime. These observations are signatures of the improved extraction efficiency of hot-carriers by the Au/Pt heterostructures. The results give insight into the time-dependent behaviour of excited compound nanoscale systems and provide a way of controlling the relaxation mechanisms involved, with important consequences for engineering nonlinear optical response and hot-carrier-assisted photochemistry.
AB - Understanding and optimising the mechanisms of generation and extraction of hot carriers in plasmonic heterostructures is important for applications in new types of photodetectors, photochemistry and photocatalysis, as well as nonlinear optics. Here, we show using transient dynamic measurements that the relaxation of the excited hot-carriers in Au/Pt hetero-nanostructures is accelerated through the transfer pathway from Au, where they are generated, to Pt nanoparticles, which act as a hot-electron sink. The influence of the environment on the dynamics was also demonstrated. The time-resolved photoluminescence measurements confirm the modified hot-electron dynamics, revealing quenching of the photoluminescence signal from Au nanoparticles in the presence of Pt and an increased photoluminescence lifetime. These observations are signatures of the improved extraction efficiency of hot-carriers by the Au/Pt heterostructures. The results give insight into the time-dependent behaviour of excited compound nanoscale systems and provide a way of controlling the relaxation mechanisms involved, with important consequences for engineering nonlinear optical response and hot-carrier-assisted photochemistry.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85113321464&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1515/nanoph-2021-0278
DO - 10.1515/nanoph-2021-0278
M3 - Article
SN - 2192-8614
VL - 10
SP - 2929
EP - 2938
JO - Nanophotonics
JF - Nanophotonics
IS - 11
ER -