The Josephson light-emitting diode

TL;DR

This paper explores an optical quantum dot coupled to superconducting leads, revealing photon emission linked to superconducting correlations and Josephson radiation, with potential for probing photon coherence in quantum devices.

Contribution

It introduces a novel system where superconducting correlations induce discrete photon emissions and Josephson-like radiation in an optical quantum dot.

Findings

Photon emission at discrete energies and a continuous tail.

Spectral lines directly probe superconducting correlations.

Identification of Josephson radiation in photon emission.

Abstract

We consider an optical quantum dot where an electron level and a hole level are coupled to respective superconducting leads. We find that electrons and holes recombine producing photons at discrete energies as well as a continuous tail. Further, the spectral lines directly probe the induced superconducting correlations on the dot. At energies close to the applied bias voltage eV, a parameter range exists, where radiation proceeds in pairwise emission of polarization correlated photons. At energies close to 2eV, emitted photons are associated with Cooper pair transfer and are reminiscent of Josephson radiation. We discuss how to probe the coherence of these photons in a SQUID geometry via single photon interference.