TY - JOUR
T1 - Ultrafast photoinduced heat generation by plasmonic HfN nanoparticles
AU - O'Neill, Devin B.
AU - Frehan, Sean K.
AU - Zhu, Kaijian
AU - Zoethout, Erwin
AU - Mul, Guido
AU - Garnett, Erik
AU - Huijser, Annemarie
AU - Askes, Sven
N1 - Funding Information:
The authors thank Dr. Cees Otto and Prof. Herman Offerhaus for stimulating discussions regarding stimulated Raman scattering. S.A. gratefully acknowledges the Dutch Research Council (NWO) for financial support (VI.Veni.192.062). D.B.O. thanks the NWO and BASF, Sabic, and Sasol for financial support (NWO project number 731.015.603).
Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 The Authors. Advanced Optical Materials published by Wiley-VCH GmbH
PY - 2021/10/4
Y1 - 2021/10/4
N2 - There is great interest in the development of alternatives to noble metals for plasmonic nanostructures. Transition metal nitrides are promising due to their robust refractory properties. However, the photophysics of these nanostructures, particularly the hot carrier dynamics and photothermal response on ultrafast timescales, are not well understood. This limits their implementation in applications such as photothermal catalysis or solar thermophotovoltaics. In this study, the light-induced relaxation processes in water-dispersed HfN nanoparticles are, for the first time, elucidated by fs transient absorption, Lumerical FDTD and COMSOL Multiphysics simulations, and temperature-dependent ellipsometry. It is unequivocally demonstrated that HfN nanoparticles convert absorbed photons into heat within <100 fs; no signature of hot charge carriers is observed. Interestingly, under high photon energy or intense irradiation stimulated Raman scattering characteristic of oxynitride surface termination is observed. These findings suggest that transition metal nitrides could offer benefits over noble metals in the field of plasmonic photothermal catalysis.
AB - There is great interest in the development of alternatives to noble metals for plasmonic nanostructures. Transition metal nitrides are promising due to their robust refractory properties. However, the photophysics of these nanostructures, particularly the hot carrier dynamics and photothermal response on ultrafast timescales, are not well understood. This limits their implementation in applications such as photothermal catalysis or solar thermophotovoltaics. In this study, the light-induced relaxation processes in water-dispersed HfN nanoparticles are, for the first time, elucidated by fs transient absorption, Lumerical FDTD and COMSOL Multiphysics simulations, and temperature-dependent ellipsometry. It is unequivocally demonstrated that HfN nanoparticles convert absorbed photons into heat within <100 fs; no signature of hot charge carriers is observed. Interestingly, under high photon energy or intense irradiation stimulated Raman scattering characteristic of oxynitride surface termination is observed. These findings suggest that transition metal nitrides could offer benefits over noble metals in the field of plasmonic photothermal catalysis.
KW - Femtosecond transient absorption
KW - Non-noble plasmonics
KW - Plasmonic hot electrons
KW - Temperature-dependent ellipsometry
KW - Thermoplasmonics
KW - Transition metal nitrides
KW - Two-temperature model
U2 - 10.1002/adom.202100510
DO - 10.1002/adom.202100510
M3 - Article
SN - 2195-1071
VL - 9
JO - Advanced Optical Materials
JF - Advanced Optical Materials
IS - 19
M1 - 2100510
ER -
