Strong exciton-localized plasmon coupling in a-Ge24Se76/AuNP heterostructure

Metal nanoparticle-semiconductor interfaces are sites of complex light-matter interactions, in particular, the exciton-plasmon coupling which plays a key role in the optical response of such heterostructures. There exists a pathway of photoinduced charge transfer from the semiconductor to the metal, which can be used to controllably vary the driving forces at the interface that leads to tunable optoelectronic properties. In this letter, we report the observation of a dramatic suppression of plasmonic as well as excitonic absorption in a-Ge24Se76/gold nanoparticle heterostructures by trapped charges. Suppression of the excitonic absorption is strongly correlated with the plasmon wavelength. (C) 2016 Author(s)