Theoretical approaches for the description of plasmon generated hot carriers phenomena

Abstract Plasmonic-driven photocatalysis is one of the most vibrant and promising field in nanoscience. Out of the various mechanisms known to activate chemical reactions in molecules interacting with optically excited nanostructures, the one involving production and transfer of Hot Carriers (HCs) is among the most relevant. Over the past decade, along with stunning advances on HCs control and manipulation, a variety of theoretical and computational strategies have been developed to model this phenomenon and explore its underlying physics. These techniques have provided comprehensive understandings of HCs life stages and dynamics, and allowed valuable insights on their role in photocatalysis. However, to date it is hard to extricate within the plethora of methods developed and the growing number of applications they found. The purpose of this review is to survey the approaches employed so far to model HCs photophysics, rationalizing and classifying the different studies in terms of modelization, theoretical approaches, and approximations.