Tang Yuankai, Prakash Saurav, Nandi Proloy, Ariando Ariando, Agrawal Amit, Harutyunyan Hayk
Department of Physics, Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia 30322, United States.
Department of Physics, National University of Singapore, Singapore 117551, Singapore.
ACS Nano. 2025 Aug 5;19(30):27204-27214. doi: 10.1021/acsnano.5c03217. Epub 2025 Jul 23.
Light emission and detection through tunnel junctions have emerged as a promising platform for studying nanoscale light-matter interactions, including electroluminescence and photoassisted transport. However, controlling these interactions in the tunneling regime has been challenging due to complex underlying mechanisms that remain poorly understood. A major obstacle is the difficulty in forming stable junctions that can function reliably over extended periods. In this study, we fabricate ultrastable tunneling junctions consisting of epitaxial indium-tin-oxide, epitaxial lutetium oxide, and gold. With their stable and consistent tunneling currents, we investigate photon-assisted transport phenomena using simple direct-current detection. Our results demonstrate that optical rectification is the primary contributor to the laser-induced current, alongside thermal effects and hot-electron currents. Furthermore, owing to their epitaxial nature and high breakdown threshold, this ultrastable platform holds promise for future real-world applications, including nanoscale light sources and multifunctional photodetectors.
通过隧道结进行发光和检测已成为研究纳米级光与物质相互作用（包括电致发光和光辅助传输）的一个有前景的平台。然而，由于其复杂且仍知之甚少的潜在机制，在隧穿 regime 中控制这些相互作用一直具有挑战性。一个主要障碍是难以形成能够在较长时间内可靠运行的稳定结。在本研究中，我们制造了由外延铟锡氧化物、外延氧化镥和金组成的超稳定隧道结。利用其稳定且一致的隧穿电流，我们使用简单的直流检测来研究光子辅助传输现象。我们的结果表明，除了热效应和热电子电流外，光学整流是激光诱导电流的主要贡献者。此外，由于其外延性质和高击穿阈值，这个超稳定平台有望用于未来的实际应用，包括纳米级光源和多功能光电探测器。
