title: Photon bunching in cathodoluminescence.
abstract: We have measured the second order correlation function [g^{(2)}(τ)] of the cathodoluminescence intensity resulting from the excitation by fast electrons of defect centers in wide band-gap semiconductor nanocrystals of diamond and hexagonal boron nitride. We show that the cathodoluminescence second order correlation function g^{(2)}(τ) of multiple defect centers is dominated by a large, nanosecond zero-delay bunching (g^{(2)}(0)>30), in stark contrast to their flat photoluminescence g^{(2)}(τ) function. We have developed a model showing that this bunching can be attributed to the synchronized emission from several defect centers excited by the same electron through the deexcitation of a bulk plasmon into few electron-hole pairs.
authors.affiliation: Laboratoire de Physique des Solides, UMR 8502 CNRS and Université Paris-Sud, Orsay 91405, France.
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Meuret
authors.affiliation: Laboratoire de Physique des Solides, UMR 8502 CNRS and Université Paris-Sud, Orsay 91405, France.
authors.forename: L H G
authors.initials: LH
authors.lastname: Tizei
authors.affiliation: Laboratoire de Physique des Solides, UMR 8502 CNRS and Université Paris-Sud, Orsay 91405, France.
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Cazimajou
authors.affiliation: Laboratoire de Physique des Solides, UMR 8502 CNRS and Université Paris-Sud, Orsay 91405, France.
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Bourrellier
authors.affiliation: Institute of Atomic and Molecular Sciences, Academia Sinica, Taipei 106, Taiwan.
authors.forename: H C
authors.initials: HC
authors.lastname: Chang
authors.affiliation: Laboratoire Aimé Cotton, UMR 9188 CNRS, Université Paris Sud and ENS Cachan, Orsay 91405, France.
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Treussart
authors.affiliation: Laboratoire de Physique des Solides, UMR 8502 CNRS and Université Paris-Sud, Orsay 91405, France.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kociak