Nonradiative emission and absorption rates of quantum emitters embedded in metallic systems: microscopic description and their determination from electronic transport

TL;DR

This paper provides a microscopic framework to understand and measure nonradiative emission and absorption rates of quantum emitters in metals, linking these rates to electronic transport properties for experimental access.

Contribution

It introduces a microscopic description of nonradiative decay channels in metals and proposes a method to determine these rates through electronic transport measurements.

Findings

Derived expressions for nonradiative transition rates in metals.

Identified a way to experimentally access nonradiative decay rates.

Differentiated nonradiative decay channels from other decay mechanisms.

Abstract

We investigate nonradiative emission and absorption rates of two-level quantum emitters embedded in a metal at low temperatures. We obtain the expressions for both nonradiative transition rates and identify a unique, experimentally accessible way to obtain the nonradiative decay rates via electronic transport in the host metallic system. Our findings not only provide a microscopic description of nonradiative decay channels in metals, but they also allows one to identify and differentiate them from other decay channels, which is crucial to understand and control light-matter interactions at the nanoscale.