Photoemission intermittency via stochastic gating in rubrene nanowires coupled to plasmonic silver nanoparticles

TL;DR

This paper uncovers a nanoscale photoemission intermittency phenomenon at organic nanowire and plasmonic nanoparticle interfaces, driven by stochastic charge gating, revealing new dynamic charge emission regimes.

Contribution

It introduces the concept of photoemission intermittency caused by stochastic gating at organic-plasmonic interfaces, a novel dynamic regime in nanoscale charge emission.

Findings

Observation of stochastic bursts in electron emission.

Correlation between electron spectra shifts and intermittency.

Enhanced photoelectron yield linked to nanoparticles.

Abstract

In this work, we report a new nanoscale phenomenon observed as photoemission intermittency (On-Off electron emission), manifested as stochastic bursts in electron yield at quasi-one-dimensional organic wires and silver nanoparticles interface. Energy-resolved measurements reveal that the emitted electrons carry out hybrid information, containing photoelectron yield enhancement associated with the nanoparticles and kinetic energies determined by the organic semiconductor. The intermittency results in a dynamic shift of the electron spectra correlating with the photoelectron yield. We attribute the observed behaviour to the photo-hole accumulation and stochastic gating of charge due to electron-hole separation at the nano interface. These findings introduces the photoemission intermittency as a nanoscale phenomenon indicating a new dynamic regime of charge assisted emission at organic-plasmonic interfaces. Keywords: rubrene, nanoparticle, PEEM, exciton, charge