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Updated: Apr 15, 2026

Determination of the Excitation and Coupling Rates Between Light Emitters and Surface Plasmon Polaritons
Published on: July 21, 2018
Theory of light emission from quantum noise in plasmonic contacts: above-threshold emission from higher-order
Kristen Kaasbjerg1,2, Abraham Nitzan2
1Department of Condensed Matter Physics, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot 76100, Israel.
Abstract:
We develop a theoretical framework for the description of light emission from plasmonic contacts based on the nonequilibrium Green function formalism. Our theory establishes a fundamental link between the finite-frequency quantum noise and ac conductance of the contact and the light emission. Calculating the quantum noise to higher orders in the electron-plasmon interaction, we identify a plasmon-induced electron-electron interaction as the source of experimentally observed above-threshold light emission from biased STM contacts. Our findings provide important insight into the effect of interactions on the light emission from atomic-scale contacts.
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