Gold Nanoparticles on TM:ZnO (TM: Fe, Co) as Spinplasmon-Assisted Electro-Optic Reaction Modulator in Solar-to-Hydrogen Water Splitting Cell

Abstract

The optical spintronic injection is a perspective issue about spintronics in semiconductors. Here, we report the simultaneous operation and effective control of the spincurrent from nanostructures in a semiconductor by combining the spin of a photoelectron for hydrogen production. The surface plasmon resonance (SPR) of gold-coated Fe:ZnO or Co:ZnO NRs (nanorods) is excited by the circular polarization light of coherent ℏ/–ℏ injection. The efficiency of spintronic-photoelectrochemical (SPEC) hydrogen production of Au/Fe:ZnO NRs irradiated by coherent ℏ/–ℏ circular polarization is as high as 188.76%, about 5 times higher than pure ZnO NRs. In the study, the system with two qubits can be in any superposition to four different bits, which utilizes quantum mechanical phenomena to improve SPEC hydrogen production efficiency. The injection of optical spintronics is significantly tuned for the environmentally friendly applications as the development of alternative energy.