Generation of energetic electrons is an effect occurring in any plasmonic nanostructure. However, the number of electrons with high energies generated optically in a plasmonic nanostructure can be limited. This is an intrinsic property of the collective plasmon excitations in a Fermi gas of electrons. But the choices of material and geometry have a great impact on the generation rate, and are therefore crucial for designing a nanostructure with a large rate of generation of energetic (hot) electrons. Here we test different plasmonic geometries and materials from the point of view of the generation of hot electrons (HEs). We show theoretically that plasmonic geometries with hots spots, such as metamaterial absorbers with a mirror or nanostars, exhibit anomalously large numbers of energetic (hot) electrons. This effect was recently observed as <i>anomalous ultrafast dynamics with ultrashort lifetimes </i>(&gt; 80fs) in the plasmonic nanopatch metasurfaces. It is now established that hot plasmonic electrons with high energies are able to drive photochemistry. One type of nanocrystals for efficient photochemistry, which was identified by us in Ref. 6, is plasmonic nanostars. Another our finding is that hot electrons in chiral nanocrystals may enable chiral photochemistry via plasmon-induced surface growth at the nanoscale.

Plasmonic hot electrons from metastructures for photochemistry: Hot spots and chiral reactions

2019 Fall National Meeting

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