Remote plasmon--induced heat transfer probed by the electronic transport of a gold nanowire

TL;DR

This study demonstrates how optical excitation of plasmonic antennas causes heat transfer that affects nearby gold nanowire electron transport, revealing insights into remote plasmon-induced heating effects.

Contribution

It provides a quantitative analysis of remote heat transfer via plasmonic antennas affecting electron transport in gold nanowires, validated by numerical simulations.

Findings

Remote heating can exceed direct illumination effects.

Global temperature calibration underestimates local heat.

Numerical simulations agree with experimental resistance measurements.

Abstract

We show in this paper that the heat generated by the optical excitation of resonant plasmonic antennas and diffusing along a simple glass/air interface disturbs the electron transport of a nearby conductive element. By probing the temperature-dependent resistance of a gold nanowire $R_{\rm nw}(T)$, we quantitatively analyze the impact of a resonant absorption of the laser by the antennas. We find that the temperature rise at the nanowire induced by the laser absorption of a distant nanoparticle may exceed that of a direct illumination of the nanowire itself. We also find that a global temperature calibration underestimates the heat generated locally by the laser. The temperature deduced from resistance variations are verified by numerical simulations with a very satisfactory agreement.