Quantum Mechanical Single-Gold-Nanocluster Electroluminescent Light Source at Room Temperature

Abstract

Electrically contacted gold-nanocluster arrays formed within electromigration-induced break junctions exhibit bright, field-dependent electroluminescence in the near infrared (650-800 nm). Intensity autocorrelation of spatially isolated individual nanocluster emission driven at high electrical frequency (f(ac)= approximately 200 MHz) reveals antibunched electroluminescence at room temperature. These results demonstrate the single quantum nature of several-atom gold molecules and suggest their use as room-temperature electrically driven single-photon sources.

Bright, NIR‐Emitting Au23 from Au25: Characterization and Applications Including Biolabeling

“…[17] They also exhibit electroluminescence at room temperature and hence provide facile routes to produce strong single-photon emitters. [18][19] There are several methods for the synthesis of gold subnanoclusters. A group of water-soluble glutathione-protected clusters with defined chemical compositions has been synthesized by reducing Au 3 + ions in the presence of glutathione.…”

Single-molecule transport in three-terminal devices

“…The stability diagrams of samples that exhibited nonlinear monotonic traces usually show the presence of one partial Coulomb diamond with a weak gate coupling (β < 0.05) and large addition energies >200 meV ( figure 4.4(a)). It is difficult to make conclusive statements about these junctions since it is known that electromigration may lead to the formation of small gold clusters [69] which also may exhibit signatures of Coulomb blockade and the Kondo effect [35]. These junctions may then contain a molecule that is well shielded from the gate by the leads, or a gold grain that is well coupled to one of the electrodes ( figure 4.4(a)).…”

Highly Fluorescent Noble-Metal Quantum Dots

“…While much effort is currently devoted to Ag (31)(32)(33), Au shows similar size scalings with increased stability and excellent optical properties of its own (28)(29)(30). Thus, the creation of new types of fluorescent gold clusters with high quantum yields and tunable emission will not only shed light on the fundamental question of how the electronic structures of gold clusters change with size, but also offers the opportunity to develop a new generation of small and biocompatible fluorophores as biological labels (28) or as optoelectronic emitters (49)(50)(51).…”

“…The discrete electronic structures of gold clusters should provide a unique opportunity to observe this photon antibunching behavior from few-atom metal clusters. Measurement of photon correlations from single Au 23 clusters was performed by equally splitting emission from a single Au 23 cluster onto two single-photon-sensitive detectors as described for other systems (33,(92)(93)(94). For true single quantum systems, a dip in the photon pair distribution should be observed at zero time delay between the two detectors, indicating reduced probability of two photons being simultaneously emitted.…”