Browsing by Subject "Hot electrons"

Now showing 1 - 8 of 8

Open Access
Energy relaxation probed by weak antilocalization measurements in GaN heterostructures
(2009) Cheng H.; Bıyıklı, Necmi; Xie J.; Kurdak Ç.; Morko̧ H.
Energy relaxation and electron-phonon (e-p) interaction are investigated in wurtzite Al0.15Ga0.85 N/AlN/GaN and Al0.83 In0.17 N/AlN/GaN heterostructures with polarization induced two-dimensional electron gases in the Bloch-Grüneisen regime. Weak antilocalization (WAL) and Shubnikov-de Haas measurements were performed on gated Hall bar structures at temperatures down to 0.3 K. We used WAL as a thermometer to measure the electron temperature Te as a function of the dc bias current. We found that the power dissipated per electron, P e, was proportional to Te4 due to piezoelectric acoustic phonon emission by hot electrons. We calculated Pe as a function of Te without any adjustable parameters for both the static and the dynamic screening cases of piezoelectric e-p coupling. In the temperature range of this experiment, the static screening case was expected to be applicable; however, our data was in better agreement with the dynamic screening case. © 2009 American Institute of Physics.
Open Access
Plasmonically enhanced hot electron based photovoltaic device
(Optical Society of American (OSA), 2013) Atar F.B.; Battal, E.; Aygun L.E.; Daglar, B.; Bayındır, Mehmet; Okyay, Ali Kemal
Hot electron photovoltaics is emerging as a candidate for low cost and ultra thin solar cells. Plasmonic means can be utilized to significantly boost device efficiency. We separately form the tunneling metal-insulator-metal (MIM) junction for electron collection and the plasmon exciting MIM structure on top of each other, which provides high flexibility in plasmonic design and tunneling MIM design separately. We demonstrate close to one order of magnitude enhancement in the short circuit current at the resonance wavelengths. © 2013 Optical Society of America.
Open Access
Response of polyelectrolyte layers to the SiO2 substrate charging as probed by XPS
(2009) Conger, C. P.; Süzer, Şefik
A single layer of the Cationic polyelectrolyte poly(allyamine) hydrochloride (PAH) deposited, using the layer-by-layer technique, on a silicon substrate containing 5 nm oxide layer is investigated by XPS while applying an external potential bias to the sample to control and manipulate the charge built-up on the oxide layer. Under application of a -10 V bias, the oxide layer is positively charged due to Photoemission process, evidenced by the measured Si2p binding energy of 104.4 eV. Application of a +10 V bias attracts the low energy neutralizing electrons, stemming from a hot filament, and leads to a negatively charged oxide layer, also evidenced by the measured Si2p binding energy of 102.9 eV. The single polyelectrolyte overlayer also responds to this polarity change of the oxide layer underneath by displaying a somewhat larger shifts both in the C1s and Nls peaks. In addition to the shifts in the positions, the N1s peaks undergo a significant intensity depletion, mostly on the positively charged -N+ component. We interpret this intensity depletion to be the result of reorientation of some of the dangling positively charged groups by moving toward the negatively charged oxide underlayer. To our knowledge this is the first time that a chemically specific response to an electrical stimuli is reported using XPS. A bilayer LbL film consisting of PAH and PSS, exhibits even a larger charging shift, but this time no intensity alteration is observed, most probably due to locking of the -N+ groups by the -SO3 + counterions of the second layer. © 2009 American Chemical Society.
Open Access
Semiconductor-less photovoltaic device
(IEEE, 2013) Atar, Fatih B.; Battal, Enes; Aygun, Levent E.; Dağlar, Bihter; Bayındır, Mehmet; Okyay, Ali Kemal
We demonstrate a novel semiconductor-less photovoltaic device and investigate the plasmonic effects on this device structure. The device is made of metal and dielectric layers and the operation is based on hot carrier collection. We present the use of surface plasmons to improve energy conversion efficiency. The field localization provided by surface plasmons confine the incident light in the metal layer, increasing the optical absorption and hot electron generation rate inside the metal layer. The device consists of two tandem MIM (metal-insulator-metal) junctions. Bottom MIM junction acts as a rectifying diode and top MIM junction is used to excite surface plasmons. The device operation principle as well as the topology will be discussed in detail. © 2013 IEEE.
Open Access
Strong light–matter interactions in Au plasmonic nanoantennas coupled with Prussian blue catalyst on BiVO4 for photoelectrochemical water splitting
(Wiley-VCH Verlag, 2020) Ulusoy-Ghobadi, Türkan Gamze; Ghobadi, Amir; Soydan, Mahmut Can; Vishlaghi, M. B.; Kaya, S.; Karadaş, Ferdi; Özbay, Ekmel
A facial and large‐scale compatible fabrication route is established, affording a high‐performance heterogeneous plasmonic‐based photoelectrode for water oxidation that incorporates a CoFe–Prussian blue analog (PBA) structure as the water oxidation catalytic center. For this purpose, an angled deposition of gold (Au) was used to selectively coat the tips of the bismuth vanadate (BiVO4) nanostructures, yielding Au‐capped BiVO4 (Au‐BiVO4). The formation of multiple size/dimension Au capping islands provides strong light–matter interactions at nanoscale dimensions. These plasmonic particles not only enhance light absorption in the bulk BiVO4 (through the excitation of Fabry–Perot (FP) modes) but also contribute to photocurrent generation through the injection of sub‐band‐gap hot electrons. To substantiate the activity of the photoanodes, the interfacial electron dynamics are significantly improved by using a PBA water oxidation catalyst (WOC) resulting in an Au‐BiVO4/PBA assembly. At 1.23 V (vs. RHE), the photocurrent value for a bare BiVO4 photoanode was obtained as 190 μA cm−2, whereas it was boosted to 295 μA cm−2 and 1800 μA cm−2 for Au‐BiVO4 and Au‐BiVO4/PBA, respectively. Our results suggest that this simple and facial synthetic approach paves the way for plasmonic‐based solar water splitting, in which a variety of common metals and semiconductors can be employed in conjunction with catalyst designs.
Open Access
Temperature dependent energy relaxation time in AlGaN/AlN/GaN heterostructures
(2012) Tiras, E.; Celik O.; Mutlu, S.; Ardali, S.; Lisesivdin, S.B.; Özbay, Ekmel
The two-dimensional (2D) electron energy relaxation in Al 0.25Ga 0.75N/AlN/GaN heterostructures was investigated experimentally by using two experimental techniques; Shubnikov-de Haas (SdH) effect and classical Hall Effect. The electron temperature (T e) of hot electrons was obtained from the lattice temperature (T L) and the applied electric field dependencies of the amplitude of SdH oscillations and Hall mobility. The experimental results for the electron temperature dependence of power loss are also compared with the current theoretical models for power loss in 2D semiconductors. The power loss that was determined from the SdH measurements indicates that the energy relaxation of electrons is due to acoustic phonon emission via unscreened piezoelectric interaction. In addition, the power loss from the electrons obtained from Hall mobility for electron temperatures in the range T e > 100 K is associated with optical phonon emission. The temperature dependent energy relaxation time in Al 0.25Ga 0.75N/AlN/GaN heterostructures that was determined from the power loss data indicates that hot electrons relax spontaneously with MHz to THz emission with increasing temperatures. © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Open Access
Ultra-low-cost near-infrared photodetectors on silicon
(SPIE, 2015-02) Nazirzadeh, M. Amin; Atar, Fatih B.; Turgut, B. Berkan; Okyay, Ali Kemal
We demonstrate Silicon-only near-infrared (NIR) photodetectors (sensitive up to 2000 nm) that meet large-scale ultralow-cost fabrication requirements. For the detection of infrared photons, we use metal nanoislands that form Schottky contact with Silicon. NIR photons excite plasmon resonances at metal nanoislands and plasmons decay into highly energetic charge carriers (hot electrons). These hot electrons get injected into Silicon (internal photoemission), resulting in photocurrent. Several groups have studied plasmonic nanoantennas using high resolution lithography techniques. In this work, we make use of randomly formed nanoislands for broad-band photoresponse at NIR wavelengths. We observe photoresponse up to 2000 nm wavelength with low dark current density about 50 pA/μm2. The devices exhibit photoresponsivity values as high as 2 mA/W and 600 μA/W at 1.3 μm and 1.55 μm wavelengths, respectively. Thin metal layer was deposited on low-doped n-type Silicon wafer. Rapid thermal annealing results in surface reconstruction of the metal layer into nanoislands. Annealing conditions control the average size of the nanoislands and photoresponse of the devices. An Al-doped Zinc Oxide (AZO) layer was deposited on the nanoislands using thermal atomic layer deposition (ALD) technique to acts as a transparent conductive oxide (TCO) and patterned using photolithography. AZO film creates electrical connection between the nanoislands and also makes a heterojunction to Silicon. Simple and scalable fabrication on Si substrates without the need for any sub-micron lithography or high temperature epitaxy process make these devices good candidates for ultra-low-cost broad-band NIR imaging and spectroscopy applications. © 2015 SPIE.
Open Access
Ultrafast transient optical loss dynamics in exciton-plasmon nano-assemblies
(Royal Society of Chemistry, 2017) Elkabbash, M.; Rashed, A.R.; Kucukoz, B.; Nguyen, Q.; Karatay, A.; Yaglioglu, G.; Özbay, Ekmel; Caglayan, H.; Strangi, G.
We study the exciton-plasmon dynamics that lead to optical loss mitigation via ultrafast transient absorption spectroscopy (UTAS) on hybrid aggregates of core-shell quantum dots (QDs) and Au nanoparticles (NPs). We highlight that generating hot electrons in plasmonic NPs contributes to the transient differential absorption spectrum under optical excitation. The results suggest modifying the method of analyzing the transient absorption spectra of loss mitigated systems. Additionally, we investigate the effect of Electron Oscillation frequency-Phonon Resonance Detuning (EOPRD) on loss mitigation efficiency. Moreover, power dependent UTAS reveal a frequency pulling like effect in the transient bleach maximum towards the gain emission. We show that the appropriate choice of the pump wavelength and by changing the pump power we can conclusively prove the existence of loss mitigation using UTAS. Finally, we study the transient kinetics of hybrid gain-plasmon systems and report interesting hybrid transient kinetics.