Plasmonics has aroused tremendous interest in photophysics, nanophotonics, and metamaterials. The extreme field concentration of plasmonics offers the ultimate spatial and temporal light control, single-particle detection, and optical modulation. Plasmon decay of metal nanostructures into hot carriers extends the application into photocatalysis, photodetectors, photovoltaics, and ultrafast nanooptics. The generated hot electron–hole pairs are transferred into adjacent dielectrics, well known to be more efficient than the hot carrier generation in dielectrics by direct photoexcitations. However, plasmon-induced hot-carrier-based devices are far from practical applications due to the low quantum yield of hot carrier extraction. Emergent challenges include low hot carrier generation efficiency in metals, rapid energy loss of hot carriers, and severe charge recombination at the metal/dielectric interface. In this review, we provide a fundamental insight into the hot carrier generation, transport, injection, and diffusion into dielectrics based on the steady-state and time-resolved spectroscopic studies as well as theoretical calculations. Strategies to enhance hot carrier generation in metals and electron transfer into dielectrics are discussed in detail. Then, applications based on hot carrier transfer are introduced briefly. Finally, we provide our suggestions on future research endeavors. We believe this review will provide a valuable overall physical picture of plasmon-induced hot carrier applications for researchers.

Interfacial solar steam generation (ISSG) is a novel and potential solution to global freshwater crisis. Here, based on a facile sol-gel fabrication process, we demonstrate a highly scalable Janus aramid nanofiber aerogel (JANA) as a high-efficiency ISSG device. JANA performs near-perfect broadband optical absorption, rapid photothermal conversion and effective water transportation. Owning to these features, efficient desalination of salty water and purification of municipal sewage are successfully demonstrated using JANA. In addition, benefiting from the mechanical property and chemical stability of constituent aramid nanofibers, JANA not only possesses outstanding flexibility and fire-resistance properties, but its solar steaming efficiency is also free from the influences of elastic deformations and fire treatments. We envision JANA provides a promising platform for mass-production of high-efficiency ISSG devices with supplementary capabilities of convenient transportation and long-term storage, which could further promote the realistic applications of ISSG technology.

金属表面等离激元是光与金属表面自由电子集体振荡耦合形成的一种表面电磁模式，具有突破衍射极限的光传输能力和纳米尺度的电磁能量局域效应。然而，亚波长、高局域的金属表面等离激元也同时呈现出能量损耗较高的特性，这使得等离激元光子器件的实用化仍然面临严峻挑战。碱金属作为等离激元领域的新材料，具有众多优异的性质，使之成为突破贵金属（金和银）光频损耗极限可能的材料体系之一。总结了金属表面等离激元的基本光学性质及其研究进展，在当前等离激元损耗研究的基础上，重点归纳了碱金属等离激元损耗的理论分析方法，并分析了碱金属等离激元的实验进展与当前需要解决的问题，为碱金属等离激元学的进一步发展提供了思路。

Dynamic plasmonics with the real-time active control capability of plasmonic resonances attracts much interest in the communities of physics, chemistry, and material science. Among versatile reconfigurable strategies for dynamic plasmonics, electrochemically driven strategies have garnered most of the attention. We summarize three primary strategies to enable electrochemically dynamic plasmonics, including structural transformation, carrier-density modulation, and electrochemically active surrounding-media manipulation. The reconfigurable microstructures, optical properties, and underlying physical mechanisms are discussed in detail. We also summarize the most promising applications of dynamic plasmonics, including smart windows, structural color displays, and chemical sensors. We suggest more research efforts toward the widespread applications of dynamic plasmonics.

As perovskite solar cells show tremendous potential for widespread applications, we find that adding inorganic thermal-stable cesium ions into MAPbI3 results in significantly improves thermal stability. For un-encapsulated perovskite devices, the energy conversion efficiency maintains about 75% of its original value (over 15%) in the MA0.85Cs0.05PbI3 device under 80 min of heating at 140°C in a dry atmosphere (RH≤30%). With significantly improved thermal stability achieved by a convenient process, it is expected that this type of mixed-cation perovskites can further facilitate large scale applications.