We consider the transient non-equilibrium electronic distribution that is created in a metal nanoparticle upon plasmon excitation. Following light absorption, the created plasmons decohere within a few femtoseconds, producing uncorrelated electron-hole pairs. The corresponding non-thermal electronic distribution evolves in response to the photo-exciting pulse and to subsequent relaxation processes. First, on the femtosecond timescale, the electronic subsystem relaxes to a Fermi-Dirac distribution characterized by an electronic temperature. Next, within picoseconds, thermalization with the underlying lattice phonons leads to a hot particle in internal equilibrium that subsequently equilibrates with the environment. Here we focus on the early stage of this multistep relaxation process, and on the properties of the ensuing non-equilibrium electronic distribution. We consider the form of this distribution as derived from the balance between the optical absorption and the subsequent relaxation processes, and discuss its implication for (a) heating of illuminated plasmonic particles, (b) the possibility to optically induce current in junctions, and (c) the prospect for experimental observation of such light-driven transport phenomena.
Skip Nav Destination
Article navigation
7 May 2013
Research Article|
May 06 2013
Light-induced electronic non-equilibrium in plasmonic particles
Mordechai Kornbluth;
Mordechai Kornbluth
1Department of Chemistry,
Northwestern University
, Evanston, Illinois 60208, USA
Search for other works by this author on:
Abraham Nitzan;
Abraham Nitzan
a)
2Department of Chemistry,
Tel Aviv University
, Tel Aviv 69978, Israel
Search for other works by this author on:
Tamar Seideman
Tamar Seideman
b)
1Department of Chemistry,
Northwestern University
, Evanston, Illinois 60208, USA
Search for other works by this author on:
J. Chem. Phys. 138, 174707 (2013)
Article history
Received:
December 30 2012
Accepted:
March 08 2013
Citation
Mordechai Kornbluth, Abraham Nitzan, Tamar Seideman; Light-induced electronic non-equilibrium in plasmonic particles. J. Chem. Phys. 7 May 2013; 138 (17): 174707. https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4802000
Download citation file:
Pay-Per-View Access
$40.00
Sign In
You could not be signed in. Please check your credentials and make sure you have an active account and try again.
Citing articles via
DeePMD-kit v2: A software package for deep potential models
Jinzhe Zeng, Duo Zhang, et al.
CREST—A program for the exploration of low-energy molecular chemical space
Philipp Pracht, Stefan Grimme, et al.
Dielectric profile at the Pt(111)/water interface
Jia-Xin Zhu, Jun Cheng, et al.
Related Content
Effects of optical attenuation, heat diffusion, and acoustic coherence in photoacoustic signals produced by nanoparticles
Appl. Phys. Lett. (April 2018)