随着光学器件的尺寸减小到纳米量级,金属微纳结构中的热电子越来越引人注目。热电子是指晶格中处于激发态的电子,在涉及光能转化的许多基础研究和应用中发挥着重要的作用。掌握金属微纳结构中热电子的特性有利于相关微纳光学器件的设计。为此,文章从热电子产生和弛豫的具体物理过程出发,对金属微纳结构中的光致直接激发热电子和表面等离激元热电子进行了详尽的讨论。掌握热电子的相关理论只是实现基于热电子的微纳光学器件的第一步,热电子的研究还有很大的发展空间。 As the size of optics has been reduced to the nanometer scale, hot electrons in metallic micro / nano structures have drawn increasing attention. Hot electrons refer to the excited states of electrons in the crystal lattice and play an important role in many basic research and applications involving light energy conversion. Grasping the characteristics of the hot electron in the metal micro / nano structure is beneficial to the design of the relevant micro / nano optical device. Therefore, starting from the specific physical process of thermoelectron generation and relaxation, the article discusses the photoinduced direct thermal electron and surface plasmon thermoelectrons in the metal micro / nano structure. Grasp the relevant theory of hot electrons only to achieve the first step based on the hot electron micro-nano optics, there is still much room for development of hot electrons.