# Single plasmon hot carrier generation in metallic nanoparticles

## TL;DR

This paper develops a quantum-mechanical approach to describe hot carrier generation from single plasmon decay in metallic nanoparticles, revealing significant differences from classical models and implications for ultrasmall device design.

## Contribution

It introduces a novel quantum-specific method for modeling plasmon decay into hot carriers, advancing understanding beyond semiclassical theories.

## Key findings

- Hot carrier generation rates differ from semiclassical predictions.
- Decay of non-plasmonic excitations also produces comparable hot carriers.
- Provides a foundation for designing ultrasmall plasmonic devices.

## Abstract

Hot carriers produced from the decay of localized surface plasmons in metallic nanoparticles are intensely studied because of their optoelectronic, photovoltaic and photocatalytic applications. From a classical perspective, plasmons are coherent oscillations of the electrons in the nanoparticle, but their quantized nature comes to the fore in the novel field of quantum plasmonics. In this work, we introduce a quantum-mechanical material-specific approach for describing the decay of single quantized plasmons into hot electrons and holes. We find that hot carrier generation rates differ significantly from semiclassical predictions. We also investigate the decay of excitations without plasmonic character and show that their hot carrier rates are comparable to those from the decay of plasmonic excitations for small nanoparticles. Our study provides a rigorous and general foundation for further development of plasmonic hot carrier studies in the plasmonic regime required for the design of ultrasmall devices.