Self-Oscillatory Light Emission in Plasmonic Molecular Tunnel Junctions

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates a molecular-scale self-oscillatory light emission system driven by electrically excited plasmons, revealing long-lived oscillations and transient bursts, with potential applications in optoelectronics and sensing.

Contribution

It introduces a novel self-oscillatory system based on plasmonic molecular tunnel junctions, combining experimental observation with circuit-based explanation.

Findings

Long-lived (~1000 s) low-frequency oscillations (1-20 mHz) observed.

Transient high-frequency (20-200 mHz) bursts detected.

Correlation of emission spots explained by Kirchhoff's circuit laws.

Abstract

Self-oscillators are intriguing due to their ability to sustain periodic motion without periodic stimulus. They remain rare as achieving such behavior requires a balance of energy input, dissipation and non-linear feedback mechanism. Here, we report a molecular-scale optoelectronic self-oscillatory system based on electrically excited plasmons. This system generates light via inelastic electron tunnelling, where electrons lose their energy to molecules and excite the surface plasmon polaritons that decay radiatively. Time-series imaging of photon emission in gold-naphthalene-2-thiol-EGaIn junctions, together with correlation mapping of individual emission spots, reveal long-lived (~1000 s), low-frequency oscillations (1-20 mHz) interspersed with transient high-frequency (20-200 mHz) bursts. This behavior can be explained by attributing individual emission spots to single-molecule resistors that follow Kirchhoff's circuit laws. Induced by tunnelling current, these individual spots emit in a correlated way, self-sustaining the overall oscillatory emission from the whole junction. Our observation is of great interest as it resonates with a broader understanding of similar molecular-scale dynamic systems such as picocavities, offering exciting potential for optoelectronic and sensing applications.