title: Spontaneous Hot-Electron Light Emission from Electron-Fed Optical Antennas.
abstract: Nanoscale electronics and photonics are among the most promising research areas providing functional nanocomponents for data transfer and signal processing. By adopting metal-based optical antennas as a disruptive technological vehicle, we demonstrate that these two device-generating technologies can be interfaced to create an electronically driven self-emitting unit. This nanoscale plasmonic transmitter operates by injecting electrons in a contacted tunneling antenna feedgap. Under certain operating conditions, we show that the antenna enters a highly nonlinear regime in which the energy of the emitted photons exceeds the quantum limit imposed by the applied bias. We propose a model based upon the spontaneous emission of hot electrons that correctly reproduces the experimental findings. The electron-fed optical antennas described here are critical devices for interfacing electrons and photons, enabling thus the development of optical transceivers for on-chip wireless broadcasting of information at the nanoscale.
authors.affiliation: Laboratoire Interdisciplinaire Carnot de Bourgogne UMR 6303, CNRS-Université de Bourgogne Franche-Comté , 21078 Dijon, France.
authors.forename: Mickael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Buret
authors.affiliation: Lebedev Physical Institute , Moscow, Russia.|ITMO University , Kronverkskiy 49, 197101, St. Petersburg, Russia.
authors.forename: Alexander V
authors.initials: AV
authors.lastname: Uskov
authors.affiliation: Laboratoire Interdisciplinaire Carnot de Bourgogne UMR 6303, CNRS-Université de Bourgogne Franche-Comté , 21078 Dijon, France.|ICube UMR 7357 CNRS-Télécom Physique Strasbourg , 67412 Illkirch, France.
authors.forename: Jean
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Dellinger
authors.affiliation: Laboratoire Interdisciplinaire Carnot de Bourgogne UMR 6303, CNRS-Université de Bourgogne Franche-Comté , 21078 Dijon, France.
authors.forename: Nicolas
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Cazier
authors.affiliation: Laboratoire Interdisciplinaire Carnot de Bourgogne UMR 6303, CNRS-Université de Bourgogne Franche-Comté , 21078 Dijon, France.
authors.forename: Marie-Maxime
authors.initials: MM
authors.lastname: Mennemanteuil
authors.affiliation: Laboratoire Interdisciplinaire Carnot de Bourgogne UMR 6303, CNRS-Université de Bourgogne Franche-Comté , 21078 Dijon, France.|The Institute of Photonic Sciences , 08860 Castelldefels, Spain.
authors.forename: Johann
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Berthelot
authors.affiliation: Lebedev Physical Institute , Moscow, Russia.
authors.forename: Igor V
authors.initials: IV
authors.lastname: Smetanin
authors.affiliation: Lebedev Physical Institute , Moscow, Russia.
authors.forename: Igor E
authors.initials: IE
authors.lastname: Protsenko
authors.affiliation: Laboratoire Interdisciplinaire Carnot de Bourgogne UMR 6303, CNRS-Université de Bourgogne Franche-Comté , 21078 Dijon, France.
authors.forename: Gérard
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Colas-des-Francs
authors.affiliation: Laboratoire Interdisciplinaire Carnot de Bourgogne UMR 6303, CNRS-Université de Bourgogne Franche-Comté , 21078 Dijon, France.
authors.forename: Alexandre
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Bouhelier
keywords: Optical antennas; electromigration; hot electrons; spontaneous emission; tunnel junction