In Situ Investigation of Ultrafast Dynamics of Hot Electron-Driven Photocatalysis in Plasmon-Resonant Grating Structures

Understanding the relaxation and injection dynamics of hot electrons is crucial to utilizing them in photocatalytic applications. While most studies have focused on hot carrier dynamics at metal/semiconductor interfaces, we study the in situ dynamics of direct hot electron injection from metal to adsorbates. Here, we report a hot electron-driven hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) by exciting the localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) in Au grating photoelectrodes. In situ ultrafast transient absorption (TA) measurements show a depletion peak resulting from hot electrons. When the sample is immersed in solution under -1 V applied potential, the extracted electron-phonon interaction time decreases from 0.94 to 0.67 ps because of additional energy dissipation channels. The LSPR TA signal is redshifted with delay time because of charge transfer and subsequent change in the dielectric constant of nearby solution. Plateau-like photocurrent peaks appear when exciting a 266 nm linewidth grating with p-polarized (on resonance) light, accompanied by a similar profile in the measured absorptance. Double peaks in the photocurrent measurement are observed when irradiating a 300 nm linewidth grating. The enhancement factor (i.e., reaction rate) is 15.6X between p-polarized and s-polarized light for the 300 nm linewidth grating and 4.4X for the 266 nm linewidth grating. Finite-difference time domain (FDTD) simulations show two resonant modes for both grating structures, corresponding to dipolar LSPR modes at the metal/fused silica and metal/water interfaces. To our knowledge, this is the first work in which LSPR-induced hot electron-driven photochemistry and in situ photoexcited carrier dynamics are studied on the same plasmon resonance structure with and without adsorbates.

Automated summary

Understanding the relaxation and injection dynamics of hot electrons is crucial for photocatalytic applications. In this study, hot electron-driven hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) was achieved by exciting localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) in Au grating photoelectrodes. The results demonstrate the importance of controlling the properties of the grating for obtaining desired photocurrent and absorptance responses.