Optical Power Conversion via Tunneling of Plasmonic Hot Carriers
Published in ACS Photonics, 2018
Authors: Shengxiang Wu and Matthew Sheldon $^\dagger$
In this paper, we proposed an optical power conversion scheme (plasmon-induced electron tunneling across an asymmetric tunnel junction). The asymmetric conditions are originated from electric bias (shifting Fermi level), photothermal effect and nonthermal carrier generation. The photothermal effect and the generation of nonthermal carriers are coupled since it is the dissipation (electron-phonon scatteirng) of nonthermal carriers that eventually gives the photothermal heating. To disentangle these two effects, we assumed a maintained temperature gradient across the junction under steady-state illumination and used the home-made code to calculate the generation of plasmonic nonthermal carriers. Furthermore, we involved the full wave optical simulation (FDTD method) for practical device simulation.