Photoemission enhancement induced by near-fields via local surface plasmon resonance of silver nanoparticles on a hydrogen-terminated Si(111) surface

The photoemission enhancement with local surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) was studied by two-photon photoemission (2PPE) spectroscopy for size-selected silver (Ag) and gold (Au) metal nanoparticles (NPs) deposited on a hydrogen-terminated Si(111)-(1 × 1) [H-Si(111)] surface. At 0.0015 monolayer equivalents (MLE) of Ag NPs, the photoemission enhancement was observed at a photon energy of 3.10 eV, which corresponds to the peak energy for the LSPR of isolated Ag NPs. A surface with around 0.005 MLE LSPR of size-selected Ag NPs exhibited three- and four-photon photoemission processes, implying monodispersed Ag NPs on H-Si(111). This enhancement could not be observed for Au NP deposition, even at 1.0 MLE in the photon energy range of 2.90-3.23 eV. Taking into account the polarization and photoemission-angle dependences, the photoemission enhancement could be accounted for by a mechanism involving the near-fields induced by the LSPR of Ag NPs. This mechanism is consistent with an analysis based on the effect of the interparticle distance between Ag NPs on the near-field intensity and polarization.