Plasmonic Nano-arrays for Enhanced Photoemission and Photodetection

TL;DR

This paper introduces resonant plasmonic nano-arrays that enhance photoemission and photodetection by exploiting surface electromagnetic field confinement, advancing applications in imaging, energy harvesting, and infrared sensing.

Contribution

It presents optimized plasmonic surfaces that combine electrical and photonic excitations to improve electron liberation in vacuum-channel devices.

Findings

Enhanced photoemission efficiency demonstrated

Improved infrared photodetection sensitivity

Resonant surface design optimizes light-matter interaction

Abstract

Efficient conversion of photons to electrical energy has a wide variety of applications including imaging, energy harvesting, and infrared detection. The coupling of electromagnetic radiation to free electron oscillations at a metal interface results in enhanced electric fields tightly confined to the surface. Taking advantage of this nonlinear light-matter interaction, this work presents resonant surfaces optimized for combining electrical and photonic excitations in order to liberate electrons in a vacuum-channel device for applications ranging from enhanced photoemission to infrared photodetection.