Novel Optoelectronic Materials for Hot Carrier Effects
Abstract
Novel Optoelectronic Materials for Hot Carrier Effects. Nanophotonic principles have been used to develop a wide range of optical components, including detectors, sensors, and optical switches. In order to confine light significantly below the diffraction limit, plasmonics can be employed, which enable highly confined electric fields near metal surfaces as a result of the coupling between free electrons in the metal and the incident illumination. While the field of plasmonics as enjoyed significant progress over the past decade, Ohmic loss has hindered the development of some high efficiency devices. Recently, the field of hot carrier plasmonics has emerged yielding a new opportunity to recover this loss and allows for the development of novel ultra-fast and efficient devices by utilizing excited charge carriers prior to thermalization. Our research plans aim to advance the fundamental understanding of hot electron interactions in this emerging field in order to understand and control hot electron interactions in nanoscale metals, alloys, and plasmonic ceramics, creating novel solutions to address the Navy’s need for power and energy. Our proximity to the Navel Research Laboratory has given us the opportunity to interact with researchers there to determine priorities and possible collaborations. Through our group’s work and these discussions, we have identified five priority research areas, which will be addressed in our program: (i) alloyed metals and (ii) plasmonic ceramics for tunable hot carrier dynamics, (iii) nonlinear effects in hot carrier generation and collection, (iv) hot carrier confinement in nanostructures, and (v) imaging of nanoscale hot carrier dynamics.
Document Details
- Document Type
- DoD Grant Award
- Publication Date
- Nov 23, 2016
- Source ID
- N000141612540
Entities
People
- Jeremy N. Munday
Organizations
- Office of Naval Research
- United States Navy
- University of Maryland