title: Investigation of localized surface plasmon/grating-coupled surface plasmon enhanced photocurrent in TiO2 thin films.
abstract: We fabricated plasmonic gold nanoparticle (AuNP)-TiO2 nanocomposite films and measured the photocurrent that originates from the water-splitting reaction catalyzed by the AuNP-TiO2 nanocomposite photoelectrocatalytic (PEC) electrode. The localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) of the gold nanoparticles affected the generation of photocurrent by TiO2 upon illumination with visible light. Electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) revealed that the improvement in the photocurrent generation originates from an enhancement in electron-hole pair generation induced by the SPR of the plasmonic gold nanoparticles rather than the extension of the electron lifetime. Moreover, we introduced a novel method to enhance the photocurrent of TiO2 by a multiple plasmonic effect, i.e., LSPR of plasmonic gold nanoparticles and the grating-coupled propagating SP on a gold grating. We fabricated the AuNP-TiO2 nanocomposites on a gold-coated Blu-ray disc recordable (BD-R). The enhancement of the photocurrent due to the combination of LSPR and the grating-coupled SP was investigated.
authors.affiliation: Center for Transdisciplinary Research and Graduate School of Science and Technology, Niigata University, 8050 Ikarashi 2-nocho, Nishi-ku, Niigata, 959-2181 Japan. ababa@eng.niigata-u.ac.jp.
authors.forename: Supeera
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Nootchanat
authors.forename: Hathaithip
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Ninsonti
authors.forename: Akira
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Baba
authors.forename: Sanong
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Ekgasit
authors.forename: Chuchaat
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Thammacharoen
authors.forename: Kazunari
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Shinbo
authors.forename: Keizo
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Kato
authors.forename: Futao
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Kaneko