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High performance of hot-carrier generation, transport and injection in TiN/TiO2 junction

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Abstract

Improving the performance of generation, transport and injection of hot carriers within metal/semiconductor junctions is critical for promoting the hot-carrier applications. However, the conversion efficiency of hot carriers in the commonly used noble metals (e.g., Au) is extremely low. Herein, through a systematic study by first-principles calculation and Monte Carlo simulation, we show that TiN might be a promising plasmonic material for high-efficiency hot-carrier applications. Compared with Au, TiN shows obvious advantages in the generation (high density of low-energy hot electrons) and transport (long lifetime and mean free path) of hot carriers. We further performed a device-oriented study, which reveals that high hot-carrier injection efficiency can be achieved in core/shell cylindrical TiN/TiO2 junctions. Our findings provide a deep insight into the intrinsic processes of hot-carrier generation, transport and injection, which is helpful for the development of hot-carrier devices and applications.

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Data availability The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

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Acknowledgements

We really appreciate the financial support from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 61875143, 61905170, 62075146, and 11574223), the Natural Science Foundation of Jiangsu Province (Nos. BK20180042, BK20181169, and BK20190816), the Natural Science Foundation of the Jiangsu Higher Education Institutions of China (No. 17KJA480004), the Priority Academic Program Development (PAPD) of Jiangsu Higher Education Institution, and the start-up funding of Ningbo University, and the Yongjiang Recruitment Project (No. 432200942).

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  1. These authors contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Optoelectronic Science and Engineering & Collaborative Innovation Center of Suzhou Nano Science and Technology, Soochow University, Suzhou, 215006, China

    Tingting Liu, Cheng Zhang & Xiaofeng Li

  2. Key Lab of Advanced Optical Manufacturing Technologies of Jiangsu Province & Key Lab of Modern Optical Technologies of Education Ministry of China, Soochow University, Suzhou, 215006, China

    Tingting Liu, Cheng Zhang & Xiaofeng Li

  3. School of Physical Science and Technology, Soochow University, Suzhou, 215006, China

    Qianjun Wang & Jun Hu

  4. School of Physical Science and Technology, Ningbo University, Ningbo, 315211, China

    Jun Hu

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  1. Tingting Liu
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Liu, T., Wang, Q., Zhang, C. et al. High performance of hot-carrier generation, transport and injection in TiN/TiO2 junction. Front. Phys. 17, 53509 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11467-022-1171-4

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