Plasmon-assisted hot carrier processes in metal nanoparticles can be described either classically or using the full strength of quantum mechanics. We reconfirm that from the practical applications point of view, when it comes to description of the decay of plasmons in nanoparticles, classical description is sufficiently adequate for all but the smallest of the nanoparticles. At the same time, the electron temperature rise in nanoparticles is discrete (quantized), and neglecting this fact can lead to significant underestimating of hot carrier assisted effects such as photocatalysis.

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在等离子纳米粒子中产生热载体：什么时候量化很重要？

可以经典地或利用量子力学的全部强度描述金属纳米粒子中的等离子体辅助热载流子过程。我们再次确认，从实际应用的角度来看，当谈到纳米粒子中等离激元衰减的描述时，除了最小的纳米粒子之外，经典描述已经足够了。同时，纳米粒子中的电子温升是离散的（量化的），而忽略这一事实会导致严重低估热载体辅助效应（例如光催化）。