Data associated with "Auger-excited Photoluminescence from Gold Nanoflowers"

Photoluminescence from metal nanostructures offers a promising means for studying excited charge processes in metal nanostructures. Moreover, it has many potential applications in sensing, imaging, and nanothermometry. However, a general understanding of the emission from metal nanoparticles has not yet been achieved. In particular, the possible presence of sequential emission mechanisms involving the excitation of conduction band electrons via interband Auger scattering remains unclear. In this article, we provide spectroscopic evidence for Auger-excited intraband emission from gold nanoflowers. We employ a combination of photoluminescence and photoluminescence excitation spectroscopy to investigate the excitation pathways in films of gold nanoflowers. While on the one hand, the excitation spectrum clearly demonstrates absorption by interband transitions, the emission spectra can be unequivocally assigned to intraband recombination. The combination of these two observations can only be conclusively explained by Auger-excited intraband emission. These results suggest Auger excitation to be a promising route to generate energetic non-thermal electrons with energies substantially above the Fermi level. Exploiting this effect could strongly benefit applications for nano-luminescent probes and the progress of plasmon catalysis. This dataset contains the data presented in figures 3, 4 and 6 of the linked publication.金属纳米结构的光致发光(Photoluminescence)为研究其激发态电荷过程提供了极具前景的途径，同时在传感、成像与纳米测温(nanothermometry)等领域拥有诸多潜在应用。然而，学界尚未对金属纳米颗粒的发光机制形成统一认知，尤其是涉及通过带间俄歇散射(interband Auger scattering)激发导带电子的顺序发射机制是否存在，仍有待厘清。本文针对金纳米花(gold nanoflowers)的俄歇激发带内发射提供了光谱学证据：我们结合光致发光与光致发光激发光谱(photoluminescence excitation spectroscopy)技术，对金纳米花薄膜中的激发路径展开研究。一方面，激发光谱清晰呈现出带间跃迁的吸收特征；另一方面，发射光谱可明确归属为带内复合过程。上述两项观测结果仅能通过俄歇激发的带内发射得到合理解释。本研究结果表明，俄歇激发是生成能量显著高于费米能级(Fermi level)的高能非热电子的极具前景的途径，利用这一效应将有望大幅助力纳米发光探针(nano-luminescent probes)的应用以及等离子体催化(plasmon catalysis)领域的发展。 本数据集包含该关联论文中图3、图4与图6所呈现的实验数据。