Surface plasmon enhanced photoconductance and single electron effects in mesoporous titania nanofibers loaded with gold nanoparticles

We have synthesized mesoporous TiO2 nanofibers loaded with Au nanoparticles (MTNF-Au) and fabricated single nanofiber-based devices. MTNF-Au devices exhibited surface plasmon enhanced photoconductance under visible light, whereas MTNF devices without Au nanoparticles did not. Moreover, Coulomb oscillations were observed at 4.2 K in MTNF-Au devices, indicating that Au nanoparticles embedded in MTNF-Au played a role of Coulomb islands. These results suggested that the enhanced photoconductance was ascribed to electron tunneling of hot electrons generated by the surface plasmon resonance.