Water Oxidation under Modal Ultrastrong Coupling Conditions Using Gold/Silver Alloy Nanoparticles and Fabry–Pérot Nanocavities

Abstract

We developed a photoanode consisting of Au‐Ag alloy nanoparticles (NPs), a TiO 2 thin film and a Au film (AATA) under modal strong coupling conditions with a large splitting energy of 520 meV, which can be categorized into the ultrastrong coupling regime. We fabricated a photoanode under ultrastrong coupling conditions to verify the relationship between the coupling strength and photoelectric conversion efficiency and successfully performed efficient photochemical reactions. The AATA photoanode showed a 4.0 % maximum incident photon‐to‐current efficiency (IPCE), obtained at 580 nm, and the internal quantum efficiency (IQE) was 4.1 %. These results were attributed to the high hot‐electron injection efficiency due to the larger near‐field enhancement and relatively negative potential distribution of the hot electrons. Furthermore, hybrid mode‐induced water oxidation using AATA structures was performed, with a Faraday efficiency of more than 70 % for O 2 evolution.