Hot carriers: Extra energy for extra bandwidth in photonics and electronics

Abstract

Hot carriers –electrons and holes with energies notably larger than k¬BTroom¬– play a key role in many photon-driven processes ranging from solar energy harvesting to photochemistry. In essence, hot carriers are the natural products of light absorption in plasmonic platforms and often are regarded as an inherent source of loss in subwavelength metallic resonators. In this talk, we present a series of ideas revealing grand optical and opto-electrical opportunities based on the generation and transport of hot carriers. To name a few, we discuss the essential role of hot carries for implementing sub-picosecond optical switches, inducing second-order nonlinear optical effects in centrosymmetric media, and demonstrating the generation of terahertz electronic signals in hybrid nanophotonic platforms.