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Published March 22, 2019 | v1
Journal Article Open

Large-Area Nanofabrication of Partially Embedded Nanostructures for Enhanced Plasmonic Hot-Carrier Extraction

Abstract

When plasmonic nanoparticles are coupled with semiconductors, highly energetic hot carriers can be extracted from the metal–semiconductor interface for various applications in light energy conversion. However, the current quantum yields for hot-electron extraction are generally low. An approach for increasing the extraction efficiency consists of maximizing the contact area between the surface of the metal nanostructure and the electron-accepting material. In this work, we developed an innovative, simple, and scalable fabrication technique that partially embeds colloidal plasmonic nanostructures within a semiconductor TiO₂ layer without utilizing any complex top-down nanofabrication method. The successful embedding is confirmed by scanning electron microscopy and atomic force microscopy imaging. Using visible-pump, near-IR probe transient absorption spectroscopy, we also provide evidence that the increase in the surface contact area between the nanostructures and the electron-accepting material leads to an increase in the amount of hot-electron injection into the TiO₂ layer.

Copyright and License

© 2019 American Chemical Society.

Acknowledgement

This work was performed in part at the Melbourne Centre for Nanofabrication (MCN) in the Victorian Node of the Australian National Fabrication Facility (ANFF). C.N. was supported by an OCE Fellowship from CSIRO. D.E.G. acknowledges the ARC for support through a Future Fellowship (FT140100514). D.E.G and U.B. acknowledge the ANFF for MCN Technology Fellowships. The authors acknowledge use of facilities within the Monash Centre for Electron Microscopy A.R., T.J.D., and D.E.G. acknowledge the ARC for support through a Discovery Project (DP160100983). T.A.S., D.E.G., U.B., and J.E.S. also acknowledge support from the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence in Exciton Science (CE170100026).

Conflict of Interest

The authors declare no competing financial interest.

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Additional details

Created:
October 9, 2023
Modified:
October 9, 2023