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Plasmonic Landau damping in active environments

Niket Thakkar, Nicholas P. Montoni, Charles Cherqui, and David J. Masiello
Phys. Rev. B 97, 121403(R) – Published 12 March 2018
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Abstract

Optical manipulation of charge on the nanoscale is of fundamental importance to an array of proposed technologies from selective photocatalysis to nanophotonics. Open plasmonic systems where collective electron oscillations release energy and charge to their environments offer a potential means to this end as plasmons can rapidly decay into energetic electron-hole pairs; however, isolating this decay from other plasmon-environment interactions remains a challenge. Here we present an analytic theory of noble-metal nanoparticles that quantitatively models plasmon decay into electron-hole pairs, demonstrates that this decay depends significantly on the nanoparticle's dielectric environment, and disentangles this effect from competing decay pathways. Using our approach to incorporate embedding material and substrate effects on plasmon-electron interaction, we show that predictions from the model agree with four separate experiments. Finally, examination of coupled nanoparticle-emitter systems further shows that the hybridized in-phase mode more efficiently decays to photons whereas the out-of-phase mode more efficiently decays to electron-hole pairs, offering a strategy to tailor open plasmonic systems for charge manipulation.

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  • Received 18 April 2017
  • Revised 31 January 2018

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.97.121403

©2018 American Physical Society

Physics Subject Headings (PhySH)

Condensed Matter, Materials & Applied Physics

Authors & Affiliations

Niket Thakkar1,*, Nicholas P. Montoni2, Charles Cherqui2, and David J. Masiello1,2,†

  • 1Department of Applied Mathematics, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington 98195-3925, USA
  • 2Department of Chemistry, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington 98195-1700, USA

  • *thakkar@uw.edu
  • masiello@chem.washington.edu

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Issue

Vol. 97, Iss. 12 — 15 March 2018

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