Seeing the invisible plasma with transient phonons in cuprous oxide

Laszlo Frazer; Richard D. Schaller; Kelvin B. Chang; Aleksandr Chernatynskiy; Kenneth R. Poeppelmeier

doi:10.1039/C6CP06532E

Seeing the invisible plasma with transient phonons in cuprous oxide†

Laszlo Frazer,

*^a Richard D. Schaller,^bc Kelvin B. Chang,^c Aleksandr Chernatynskiy^d and Kenneth R. Poeppelmeier^ce

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* Corresponding authors

^a School of Chemistry, UNSW Sydney, NSW 2052, Australia and Department of Chemistry, Temple University, 1901 N. 13th Street, Philadelphia, PA 19122, USA
E-mail: pccp@laszlofrazer.com
Tel: +1 61 401 648 058

^b Center for Nanoscale Materials, Argonne National Laboratory, 9700 South Cass Avenue, Building 440, Argonne, IL 60439, USA

^c Department of Chemistry, Northwestern University, 2145 Sheridan Road, Evanston, Illinois 60208-3112, USA

^d Department of Physics, Missouri University of Science and Technology, 117 Physics Building, Rolla, Missouri 65409-0640, USA

^e Chemical Sciences and Engineering Division, Argonne National Laboratory, 9700 South Cass Avenue, Argonne, Illinois 60439, USA

Abstract

The emission of phonons from electron–hole plasma is the primary limit on the efficiency of photovoltaic devices operating above the bandgap. In cuprous oxide (Cu₂O) there is no luminescence from electron–hole plasma. Therefore, we searched for optical phonons emitted by energetic charge carriers using phonon-to-exciton upconversion transitions. We found 14 meV phonons with a lifetime of 0.916 ± 0.008 ps and 79 meV phonons that are longer lived and overrepresented. It is surprising that the higher energy phonon has a longer lifetime.

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Article information

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1039/C6CP06532E
Article type: Paper
Submitted: 23 Sep 2016
Accepted: 29 Nov 2016
First published: 12 Dec 2016
This article is Open Access

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Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys., 2017,19, 1151-1157

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Seeing the invisible plasma with transient phonons in cuprous oxide

L. Frazer, R. D. Schaller, K. B. Chang, A. Chernatynskiy and K. R. Poeppelmeier, Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys., 2017, 19, 1151 DOI: 10.1039/C6CP06532E

This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported Licence. You can use material from this article in other publications without requesting further permissions from the RSC, provided that the correct acknowledgement is given.

Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics

Seeing the invisible plasma with transient phonons in cuprous oxide†

Abstract

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Seeing the invisible plasma with transient phonons in cuprous oxide

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