Multielectron Ground State Electroluminescence

The ground state of a cavity-electron system in the ultrastrong coupling regime is characterized by the presence of virtual photons. If an electric current flows through this system, the modulation of the light-matter coupling induced by this nonequilibrium effect can induce an extracavity photon em...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Physical review letters 2019-05, Vol.122 (19), p.190403-190403
Main Authors: Cirio, Mauro, Shammah, Nathan, Lambert, Neill, De Liberato, Simone, Nori, Franco
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Coupling
Electroluminescence
Ground state
Heterostructures
Photon emission
Photons
Online Access:Get full text
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Summary:The ground state of a cavity-electron system in the ultrastrong coupling regime is characterized by the presence of virtual photons. If an electric current flows through this system, the modulation of the light-matter coupling induced by this nonequilibrium effect can induce an extracavity photon emission signal, even when electrons entering the cavity do not have enough energy to populate the excited states. We show that this ground state electroluminescence, previously identified in a single-qubit system [Phys. Rev. Lett. 116, 113601 (2016)PRLTAO0031-900710.1103/PhysRevLett.116.113601] can arise in a many-electron system. The collective enhancement of the light-matter coupling makes this effect, described beyond the rotating wave approximation, robust in the thermodynamic limit, allowing its observation in a broad range of physical systems, from a semiconductor heterostructure with flatband dispersion to various implementations of the Dicke model.
ISSN:0031-9007
1079-7114
DOI:10.1103/PhysRevLett.122.190403