TY - JOUR
T1 - The Importance of Schottky Barrier Height in Plasmonically Enhanced Hot-Electron Devices
AU - Zhao, Shenyou
AU - Yin, Yanting
AU - Peng, Jun
AU - Wu, Yiliang
AU - Andersson, Gunther G.
AU - Beck, Fiona J.
PY - 2021/2/4
Y1 - 2021/2/4
N2 - Plasmonically enhanced hot-electron (PEH) photodiodes are a new class of optoelectronic device with the potential to be selective to spectral position, polarization, and bandwidth. Reported solid-state PEH devices based on metal nanoparticles generally have low performance, in part, due to low collection efficiency of photogenerated hot electrons. A correlation is found between the measured external quantum efficiency (EQE) and the temperature at which the ALD-TiO2 is deposited by atomic layer deposition (ALD) in Au–TiO2-based PEH photodiodes. By investigating the material properties of the TiO2, it is demonstrated that the change in EQE is driven by a change in the energy levels in the semiconductor. The results show that lowering the implied Schottky barrier height increases the collection efficiency of hot electrons over the junction, in agreement with existing analytical models. This work demonstrates the crucial role that barrier height plays in hot electron devices in general, and indicates that this is an important design consideration for the improvement of PEH photodetectors.
AB - Plasmonically enhanced hot-electron (PEH) photodiodes are a new class of optoelectronic device with the potential to be selective to spectral position, polarization, and bandwidth. Reported solid-state PEH devices based on metal nanoparticles generally have low performance, in part, due to low collection efficiency of photogenerated hot electrons. A correlation is found between the measured external quantum efficiency (EQE) and the temperature at which the ALD-TiO2 is deposited by atomic layer deposition (ALD) in Au–TiO2-based PEH photodiodes. By investigating the material properties of the TiO2, it is demonstrated that the change in EQE is driven by a change in the energy levels in the semiconductor. The results show that lowering the implied Schottky barrier height increases the collection efficiency of hot electrons over the junction, in agreement with existing analytical models. This work demonstrates the crucial role that barrier height plays in hot electron devices in general, and indicates that this is an important design consideration for the improvement of PEH photodetectors.
KW - hot electrons
KW - optoelectronics
KW - photoelectron spectroscopy
KW - plasmonics
KW - Schottky barrier height
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85096710564&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://purl.org/au-research/grants/ARC/DE180100383
U2 - 10.1002/adom.202001121
DO - 10.1002/adom.202001121
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85096710564
SN - 2195-1071
VL - 9
JO - Advanced Optical Materials
JF - Advanced Optical Materials
IS - 3
M1 - 2001121
ER -