Sub-Poissonian Electroluminescence from Resonant Inelastic Tunneling in One-Dimensional Gold Atomic Chains

Abstract Electrically driven single-photon sources are central to integrated quantum photonics, but Poissonian carrier injection usually transfers electrical shot noise into classical photon statistics. Here we propose to suppress this bottleneck at its origin by using a one-dimensional (1D) gold atomic chain as an atomic-scale quantum conductor. Density-functional-theory-parameterized nonequilibrium Green’s function calculations show that resonant tunneling through a dz2-dominated ballistic channel suppresses electronic partition noise and generates a sub-Poissonian current. The same 1D spectrum, through discrete molecular levels and van Hove singularities, suppresses elastic tunneling while opening a resonant inelastic channel, yielding an intrinsic plasmon-excitation efficiency ηinel of about 80%. Coupling this quiet, high-yield electron flow to a nanometer-scale plasmonic antenna enables antibunched electroluminescence with a projected external photon-generation efficiency ηEQE ≈ 60% and a high photon purity (g(2)(0) ≈ 0). These results identify quantum-statistical engineering of electron transport as a route to electrically driven nonclassical light at the atomic limit.