Hot Electrons Nanoscopy and Spectroscopy (HENs)

Abstract: Surface plasmon polaritons can decay to form highly energetic (hot) electrons in a process that is usually thought to be parasitic as it limits the lifetime and propagation length of surface plasmons polaritons. However, it has been recently shown that hot electrons produced by surface plasmons decay can find application in photodetection, catalysis and solar energy conversion. Here we show that adiabatic focusing of surface plasmons on a Schottky junction terminated tapered tip of nanoscale dimensions allows plasmons to decay in hot electrons with conversion efficiency up to ∼30%. With such a high efficiency, hot electrons can be used for a new nanoscopy technique based on an atomic force microscopy set-up [1]. We will show recent results on 2D materials. We show that this hot electrons nanoscopy preserves the chemical sensitivity of the scanned surface and has a spatial resolution down to 3 nm [2].

References
[1] Nanoscale chemical mapping using three-dimensional adiabatic compression of surface plasmon polaritons F. De Angelis, et al. Nature nanotechnology 5 (1), 67-72, 2009
[2] Hot-electron nanoscopy using adiabatic compression of surface plasmons A Giugni, et al, Nature nanotechnology 8 (11), 845-852,2013