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Updated: Jan 3, 2026

Determination of the Excitation and Coupling Rates Between Light Emitters and Surface Plasmon Polaritons
Published on: July 21, 2018
The Chemical Potential of Plasmonic Excitations
Sungju Yu1, Prashant K Jain1,2
1Department of Chemistry, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL, 61801, USA.
Abstract:
By the photoexcitation of localized surface plasmon resonances of metal nanoparticles, one can generate reaction equivalents for driving redox reactions. We show that, in such cases, there is a chemical potential contributed by the plasmonic excitation. This chemical potential is a function of the concentration of light, as we determine from the light-intensity-dependent activity in the plasmon-excitation-driven reduction of CO2 on Au nanoparticles. Our finding allows the treatment of plasmonic excitation as a reagent in chemical reactions; the chemical potential of this reagent is tunable by the light intensity.
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