Single Photon Emission from a Plasmonic Light Source Driven by a Local Field-Induced Coulomb Blockade.
basic_science · Level V
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- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 32159937.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1021/acsnano.9b09299 and PMC identifier 7199210.
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Abstract
A hallmark of quantum control is the ability to manipulate quantum emission at the nanoscale. Through scanning tunneling microscopy-induced luminescence (STML), we are able to generate plasmonic light originating from inelastic tunneling processes that occur in the vacuum between a tip and a few-nanometer-thick molecular film of C<sub>60</sub> deposited on Ag(111). Single photon emission, not of molecular excitonic origin, occurs with a 1/<i>e</i> recovery time of a tenth of a nanosecond or less, as shown through Hanbury Brown and Twiss photon intensity interferometry. Tight-binding calculations of the electronic structure for the combined tip and Ag-C<sub>60</sub> system results in good agreement with experiment. The tunneling happens through electric-field-induced split-off states below the C<sub>60</sub> LUMO band, which leads to a Coulomb blockade effect and single photon emission. The use of split-off states is shown to be a general technique that has special relevance for narrowband materials with a large bandgap.