RealNanoPlasmon · Towards nanoscale reality in plasmonic hot-carrier generation
Horizon 2020 — Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions
- Duration
- 2019-04-01 → 2021-03-31
- EU contribution
- €191,852
- Participants
- 1
- Scheme
- MSCA-IF
Lines connect the coordinator with its partners.
Results in brief
Towards nanoscale reality in plasmonic hot-carrier generation
The development of renewable energy technologies is crucial for the goal of a global sustainable society. For reaching this goal, solar energy technologies that rely on the efficient utilization of abundant sunlight play an important role. To this end, plasmon-enhanced processes enabled by metal nanoparticles provide particularly promising avenues for harvesting sunlight. Plasmon-enhanced technologies are based on metal nanoparticles that support localized surface plasmon resonances. Thanks to these resonances, metal nanoparticles exhibit large photoabsorption cross-sections, which makes them efficient light absorbers. Upon light absorption, the absorbed energy is confined in the nanometer-scale volume of the nanoparticle, and a particularly attractive approach for utilizing this energy is through plasmonic catalysis. In this process, the plasmon resonance decays on a femtosecond timescale, creating high-energy electrons and holes, so-called hot carriers. These plasmon-generated hot carriers could trigger chemical reactions in molecules adsorbed on the nanoparticle surface, turning metal nanoparticles into solar-to-chemical energy converters. Detailed understanding of plasmonic hot-carrier generation at the atomic scale is highly important for plasmonic catalysis as chemical reactions take place at this size scale. In this spirit, the main objectives of this project were to develop computational first-principles methods for addressing plasmonic hot-carrier generation with atomistic resolution and to gain understanding of the atomic-scale effects on plasmonic hot-carrier generation by utilizing the developed methods. These aims were achieved in the project and the developed understanding and methods form a basis for further explorations of atomic-scale contributions.
Data: CORDIS, © European Union
Project objective
Metal nanoparticles absorb and scatter light much more than their physical size would suggest. This is caused by localized surface plasmon resonances formed upon light illumination in the nanoparticle. The plasmon resonances are characterized by collective oscillations of free electrons in the particle, but soon after its formation, typically on a femtosecond timescale, the collective plasmon mode decays via emission or via non-radiative creation of electron-hole pairs. As a result of the latter decay mechanism, high-energy electrons and holes, so-called hot carriers, are left behind. When these plasmon-induced hot carriers escape from the nanoparticle to the environment, or are induced there directly, they can be utilized for multitude of applications, such as photovoltaics, photocatalysis, or photodetection.Similarly to the plasmon resonance, the distribution of plasmon-generated hot carriers is highly dependent on the size, shape, and composition of the nanoparticle. In recent years, atomic-scale effects on plasmon resonances have become increasingly scrutinized theoretically and computationally along with sophisticated experimental techniques. Despite this development, for plasmonic hot-carrier generation the bulk of the present understanding is based on model systems or approximative methods neglecting the underlying atomic structure. The aim of this project is to develop first-principles methods for addressing plasmonic hot-carrier generation by fully accounting for the atomic structure and elemental distribution, and shed light on atomic-scale effects on hot-carrier generation by virtue of the developed methods.
Original text from CORDIS.
Participants
- CHALMERS TEKNISKA HOGSKOLA AB · GoteborgCoordinatorSweden
Links
Data: CORDIS, © European Union