Thousand-fold Increase in Plasmonic Light Emission via Combined Electronic and Optical Excitations

TL;DR

This study demonstrates a thousand-fold increase in plasmonic light emission through combined electrical and optical excitation in nanostructures, revealing new insights into hot-carrier dynamics and light-matter interactions at the nanoscale.

Contribution

It introduces a novel approach using plasmonic tunnel junctions to achieve enhanced light emission via combined excitation, supported by a comprehensive theoretical model.

Findings

Over 1000x increase in plasmonic emission under combined excitation

Agreement between experimental results and hot-carrier relaxation model

Discussion on distinguishing hot carrier emission from Raman scattering

Abstract

Surface plasmon enhanced processes and hot-carrier dynamics in plasmonic nanostructures are of great fundamental interest to reveal light-matter interactions at the nanoscale. Using plasmonic tunnel junctions as a platform supporting both electrically- and optically excited localized surface plasmons, we report a much greater (over 1000x) plasmonic light emission at upconverted photon energies under combined electro-optical excitation, compared with electrical or optical excitation separately. Two mechanisms compatible with the form of the observed spectra are interactions of plasmon-induced hot carriers and electronic anti-Stokes Raman scattering. Our measurement results are in excellent agreement with a theoretical model combining electro-optical generation of hot carriers through non-radiative plasmon excitation and hot-carrier relaxation. We also discuss the challenge of distinguishing relative contributions of hot carrier emission and the anti-Stokes electronic Raman process. This observed increase in above-threshold emission in plasmonic systems may open avenues in on-chip nanophotonic switching and hot carrier photocatalysis.