Resonant inelastic tunneling using multiple metallic quantum wells

Tunnel nanojunctions based on inelastic electron tunneling (IET) have been heralded as a breakthrough for ultra-fast integrated light sources. However, the majority of electrons tend to tunnel through a junction elastically, resulting in weak photon-emission power and limited efficiency, which have...

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Main Authors: Zhang Yiyun, Lepage Dominic, Feng Yiming, Zhao Sihan, Chen Hongsheng, Qian Haoliang
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: De Gruyter 2023-06-01
Series:Nanophotonics
Subjects:
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1515/nanoph-2023-0231
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author Zhang Yiyun
Lepage Dominic
Feng Yiming
Zhao Sihan
Chen Hongsheng
Qian Haoliang
author_facet Zhang Yiyun
Lepage Dominic
Feng Yiming
Zhao Sihan
Chen Hongsheng
Qian Haoliang
author_sort Zhang Yiyun
collection DOAJ
description Tunnel nanojunctions based on inelastic electron tunneling (IET) have been heralded as a breakthrough for ultra-fast integrated light sources. However, the majority of electrons tend to tunnel through a junction elastically, resulting in weak photon-emission power and limited efficiency, which have hindered their practical applications to date. Resonant tunneling has been proposed as a way to alleviate this limitation, but photon-emissions under resonant tunneling conditions have remained unsatisfactory for practical IET-based light sources due to the inherent contradiction between high photon-emission efficiency and power. In this work, we introduce a novel approach that leverages much stronger resonant tunneling enhancement achieved by multiple metallic quantum wells, which has enabled the internal quantum efficiency to reach ∼1 and photon-emission power to reach ∼0.8 µW/µm2. Furthermore, this method is applicable with different electronic lifetimes ranging from 10 fs to 100 fs simultaneously, bringing practical implementation of IET-based sources one step closer to reality.
format Article
id doaj-art-5716942d491c4f5b8ea8706d40a06dc1
institution Kabale University
issn 2192-8614
language English
publishDate 2023-06-01
publisher De Gruyter
record_format Article
series Nanophotonics
spelling doaj-art-5716942d491c4f5b8ea8706d40a06dc12024-11-25T11:19:10ZengDe GruyterNanophotonics2192-86142023-06-0112163313332110.1515/nanoph-2023-0231Resonant inelastic tunneling using multiple metallic quantum wellsZhang Yiyun0Lepage Dominic1Feng Yiming2Zhao Sihan3Chen Hongsheng4Qian Haoliang5Interdisciplinary Center for Quantum Information, State Key Laboratory of Extreme Photonics and Instrumentation, ZJU-Hangzhou Global Scientific and Technological Innovation Center, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou310027, ChinaInstitut Quantique, Université de Sherbrooke, 2500 Boulevard de l’Université, Sherbrooke, QuébecJ1K 2R1, CanadaInterdisciplinary Center for Quantum Information, State Key Laboratory of Extreme Photonics and Instrumentation, ZJU-Hangzhou Global Scientific and Technological Innovation Center, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou310027, ChinaInterdisciplinary Center for Quantum Information, State Key Laboratory of Silicon Materials, and Zhejiang Province Key Laboratory of Quantum Technology and Device, Department of Physics, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou310058, ChinaInterdisciplinary Center for Quantum Information, State Key Laboratory of Extreme Photonics and Instrumentation, ZJU-Hangzhou Global Scientific and Technological Innovation Center, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou310027, ChinaInterdisciplinary Center for Quantum Information, State Key Laboratory of Extreme Photonics and Instrumentation, ZJU-Hangzhou Global Scientific and Technological Innovation Center, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou310027, ChinaTunnel nanojunctions based on inelastic electron tunneling (IET) have been heralded as a breakthrough for ultra-fast integrated light sources. However, the majority of electrons tend to tunnel through a junction elastically, resulting in weak photon-emission power and limited efficiency, which have hindered their practical applications to date. Resonant tunneling has been proposed as a way to alleviate this limitation, but photon-emissions under resonant tunneling conditions have remained unsatisfactory for practical IET-based light sources due to the inherent contradiction between high photon-emission efficiency and power. In this work, we introduce a novel approach that leverages much stronger resonant tunneling enhancement achieved by multiple metallic quantum wells, which has enabled the internal quantum efficiency to reach ∼1 and photon-emission power to reach ∼0.8 µW/µm2. Furthermore, this method is applicable with different electronic lifetimes ranging from 10 fs to 100 fs simultaneously, bringing practical implementation of IET-based sources one step closer to reality.https://doi.org/10.1515/nanoph-2023-0231inelastic electron tunnelinginternal quantum efficiencymetallic quantum wellsphoton-emission power
spellingShingle Zhang Yiyun
Lepage Dominic
Feng Yiming
Zhao Sihan
Chen Hongsheng
Qian Haoliang
Resonant inelastic tunneling using multiple metallic quantum wells
Nanophotonics
inelastic electron tunneling
internal quantum efficiency
metallic quantum wells
photon-emission power
title Resonant inelastic tunneling using multiple metallic quantum wells
title_full Resonant inelastic tunneling using multiple metallic quantum wells
title_fullStr Resonant inelastic tunneling using multiple metallic quantum wells
title_full_unstemmed Resonant inelastic tunneling using multiple metallic quantum wells
title_short Resonant inelastic tunneling using multiple metallic quantum wells
title_sort resonant inelastic tunneling using multiple metallic quantum wells
topic inelastic electron tunneling
internal quantum efficiency
metallic quantum wells
photon-emission power
url https://doi.org/10.1515/nanoph-2023-0231
work_keys_str_mv AT zhangyiyun resonantinelastictunnelingusingmultiplemetallicquantumwells
AT lepagedominic resonantinelastictunnelingusingmultiplemetallicquantumwells
AT fengyiming resonantinelastictunnelingusingmultiplemetallicquantumwells
AT zhaosihan resonantinelastictunnelingusingmultiplemetallicquantumwells
AT chenhongsheng resonantinelastictunnelingusingmultiplemetallicquantumwells
AT qianhaoliang resonantinelastictunnelingusingmultiplemetallicquantumwells