We demonstrate a method to generate photons by injecting hot electrons into a p-n junction within a $\mathrm{Ga}\mathrm{As}$/$\mathrm{Al}\mathrm{Ga}\mathrm{As}$ heterostructure. Hot electrons are generated by biasing across a mesoscopic potential in the n-type region and travel toward the p-type region through a quantum Hall edge channel in the presence of a magnetic field perpendicular to the substrate. The p-type region is created several microns away from the hot-electron emitter by inducing interfacial charges using a surface gate. The energy relaxation of the hot electrons is suppressed by separating the orbitals before and after longitudinal-optical phonon emission. This technique enables the hot electrons to reach the p-type region and to recombine with induced holes followed by photon emission. Hot-electron-induced hole recombination is confirmed by a peak around 810 nm in an optical spectrum that corresponds to excitonic recombination in a $\mathrm{Ga}\mathrm{As}$ quantum well. An asymmetric structure observed in the optical spectrum as a function of the magnetic field originates from the chiral transport of the hot electrons in the Hall edge channel. We propose that the combination of our technology and an on-demand single-electron source would enable the development of an on-demand single-photon source embedded in a semiconductor wafer, which could accelerate the integration of on-chip scalable quantum optical circuits.

Close

PrevNext

View figure in article

• Charge dynamics
• Electroluminescence
• Single photon sources
• III-V semiconductors
• Dilution refrigerator
• Spectroscopy