Spontaneous hot-electron light emission from electron-fed optical antennas

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates a nanoscale plasmonic transmitter that emits photons with energy exceeding the bias quantum limit by injecting hot electrons into optical antennas, advancing nano-optoelectronic communication.

Contribution

It introduces a novel electron-fed optical antenna device that operates in a nonlinear regime, enabling photon emission beyond the quantum bias limit, with a model explaining hot-electron spontaneous emission.

Findings

Photon energy exceeds quantum bias limit under certain conditions

Device successfully interfaces electrons and photons at the nanoscale

Model accurately reproduces experimental emission data

Abstract

Nanoscale electronics and photonics are among the most promising research areas providing functional nano-components for data transfer and signal processing. By adopting metal-based optical antennas as a disruptive technological vehicle, we demonstrate that these two device-generating technologies can be interfaced to create an electronically-driven self-emitting unit. This nanoscale plasmonic transmitter operates by injecting electrons in a contacted tunneling antenna feedgap. Under certain operating conditions, we show that the antenna enters a highly nonlinear regime in which the energy of the emitted photons exceeds the quantum limit imposed by the applied bias. We propose a model based upon the spontaneous emission of hot electrons that correctly reproduces the experimental findings. The electron-fed optical antennas described here are critical devices for interfacing electrons and photons, enabling thus the development of optical transceivers for on-chip wireless broadcasting of information at the nanoscale.