HOT-carrier METasurfaces for Advanced photonics

Hot carriers, i.e. highly energetic electrons and holes in out-of-equilibrium metals and semiconductors, have recently attracted a huge interest in photonics and optoelectronics. However, despite of the vast literature published in the field, an effective exploitation of hot carriers in nanophotonics remains a challenge. The main reason stems from the complexity inherent to hot-carrier phenomena at the nanoscale, involving short lived (picosecond) out-of-equilibrium electronic states with extremely broad (some electron volts) range of energies, in interaction with thermal electronic and phononic baths. Moreover, the nanostructuring entails high sensitivity of the photogeneration rate to the

geometrical configuration at the nanoscale. These issues have prevented a thorough design of nanophotonic devices based on hot carriers, demanding for a highly

multidisciplinary approach that is still missing.

The HOTMETA project precisely aims at bridging this gap by exploring a frontier at the intersection between nanoscale electromagnetism, hot carrier physics and metamaterials manufacturing.