Dressed-photon-phonon (DPP)-assisted visible- and infrared-light water splitting

Abstract

A dressed-phonon-phonon (DPP) assisted photocatalyst reaction was carried out to increase the visible light responsibility, where the photon energy of the radiation, which ranged from visible to infrared light is less than band gap energy of the photocatalyst (ZnO, 3.3 eV). The dependence of the photocurrent on excitation power indicated that two-step excitation occurred in DPP-assisted process. A cathodoluminescence measurement also supported the conclusion that the visible- and infrared-light excitation originated from DPP excitation, not from defect states in the ZnO nanorod photocatalyst.