Resonant inelastic tunneling using multiple metallic quantum wells
Zhang Yiyun,
Lepage Dominic,
Feng Yiming,
Zhao Sihan,
Chen Hongsheng,
Qian Haoliang
Affiliations
Zhang Yiyun
Interdisciplinary Center for Quantum Information, State Key Laboratory of Extreme Photonics and Instrumentation, ZJU-Hangzhou Global Scientific and Technological Innovation Center, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou310027, China
Lepage Dominic
Institut Quantique, Université de Sherbrooke, 2500 Boulevard de l’Université, Sherbrooke, QuébecJ1K 2R1, Canada
Feng Yiming
Interdisciplinary Center for Quantum Information, State Key Laboratory of Extreme Photonics and Instrumentation, ZJU-Hangzhou Global Scientific and Technological Innovation Center, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou310027, China
Zhao Sihan
Interdisciplinary 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, China
Chen Hongsheng
Interdisciplinary Center for Quantum Information, State Key Laboratory of Extreme Photonics and Instrumentation, ZJU-Hangzhou Global Scientific and Technological Innovation Center, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou310027, China
Qian Haoliang
Interdisciplinary Center for Quantum Information, State Key Laboratory of Extreme Photonics and Instrumentation, ZJU-Hangzhou Global Scientific and Technological Innovation Center, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou310027, China
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.
