Nonradiative Plasmon Decay and Hot Carrier Dynamics: Effects of Phonons, Surfaces, and Geometry

The behavior of metals across a broad frequency range from microwave to ultraviolet frequencies is of interest in plasmonics, nanophotonics, and metamaterials. Depending on the frequency, losses of collective excitations in metals can be predominantly classical resistive effects or Landau damping. In this context, we present first-principles calculations that capture all of the significant microscopic mechanisms underlying surface plasmon decay and predict the initial excited carrier distributions so generated. Specifically, we include ab initio predictions of phonon-assisted optical excitations in metals, which are critical to bridging the frequency range between resistive losses at low frequencies and direct…

• NS
  National Science Foundation

  Award: DE-AC02-05CH11231
• UD
  U.S. Department of Energy

  Awards: -AC02-05CH11231, 05CH11231, DE-SC0004993, DE-SC0001293, AC02-05CH11231, DE-AC02, DE-AC02-05CH11231, SC0001293, SC0004993, DE-AC02-
• LF
  Link Foundation
• RS
  Resnick Sustainability Institute for Science, Energy and Sustainability, California Institute of Technology
• OO
  Office of Science

  Awards: DE-SC0004993, AC02-05CH11231, -AC02-05CH11231, DE-AC02, DE-SC0001293
• BE
  Basic Energy Sciences

  Award: DE-SC0001293