Electrically Driven Single Photons at Room Temperature

The high demand for practical quantum information processing has sparked a search for novel nanophotonic materials in which single-photon basis states may be easily prepared, manipulated, and characterized. Created within electromigration-induced break junctions, individual electrically-contacted several-atom gold nanoclusters reveal antibunched electroluminescence consistent with single-photon emission. Electrically-driven operation at room temperature, low bleaching, and high data rates with sub-ns emission lifetimes make this system a convenient platform for study of nanoscale charge transport and applications of quantum light emission.