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

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.

Graphical abstract

Keywords

metal/semiconductor junction / plasmonic material / hot-carrier generation / lifetime and mean free path / injection efficiency

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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).

Conflict of interest

The authors have no conflicts to disclose.

Data availability

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

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