Tunable Broadband Photoresponse Electron‐Emission Nanostructure: Metasurface‐Extended Spectrum‐Selecting and Plasmon‐Enhanced Emitting

Abstract

Exploring novel nanotechnology schemes for tunable broadband vacuum photodetection devices is of great significance. Herein, a strategy to combine a field‐emission cold cathode with plasmonic nanostructures to form a plasmon‐enhanced field‐emission metasurface array is proposed. Mo nanostructures with excellent emission properties act as field‐emission cold cathode materials. Au nanospheres are applied to enhance the photocurrent of Mo nanopyramid emitters and to generate tunable resonance responses by plasmonic couplings. The response frequency and polarization can be selective in a broadband range from visible to near‐infrared, which originates from the periodic couplings of the Mo–Mo microcavities and the Au–Mo interfaces in the designed metasurface emitter arrays. The amplitude of photodetection signals is experimentally demonstrated to be tunable not only by the geometrical dimensions of the Mo nanopyramid and the number of decorated Au plasmons, but also by the applied external electrostatic fields. This plasmon‐enhanced photoresponse field‐emission process is attributed to plasmon‐mediated electron emission. Herein, a route to tunable broadband photoresponse electron‐emission nanostructures at room temperature (≈300 K) and low energy consumption for photocathode and vacuum device applications is provided in the results.

Keywords

• Au-on-Mo nanopyramids
• broadband photoresponse
• cold cathode
• field emission
• metasurface array
• plasmon-mediated electron emission