Hot electron generation in plasmonic nanostructures – thermal vs. non-thermal effects

We present a self-consistent theory of the steady-state electron distribution in metals under continuous-wave illumination which treats, for the first time, both thermal and non-thermal effects on the same footing. We show the number of non-thermal electrons (i.e., the deviation from thermal equilibrium) is a very small effect, namely, that the power that ends up generating these non-thermal electrons is many orders of magnitude smaller than the amount of power that leads to regular heating.

Using this theory, we re-examine the exciting claims on the possibility to enhance chemical reactions with these non-thermal electrons. We identify a series of errors in the temperature measurements in some of the most famous paper on the topic which led their authors to under estimate regular heating effects. As an alternative, we show that a very simple theory, based on just simple heating, can explain the published experimental data with excellent accuracy.