Excitation-Dependence of Plasmon-Induced Hot Electrons in Gold Nanoparticles.

The decay of a plasmon leads to a hot electron distribution in metallic nanoparticles. Depending on the processes involved in the excitation, different distributions are obtained, which thermalize differently. We experimentally investigate excitation-wavelength and size-dependences on the generation and thermalization of the hot-electrons. We can confirm the absence of size-dependences, and we clearly observe two regimes with significantly different relaxation dynamics depending on the photon energy. The hot electron generation is more efficient when exciting with light that enables interband transitions.