Statistics of radiation emitted from a quantum point contact

Abstract

We analyze the statistics of the electromagnetic radiation emitted from electrons pushed through a quantum point contact. We consider a setup implemented in a two-dimenional electron gas (2DEG) where the radiation manifests itself in terms of 2D plasmons emitted from electrons scattered at the point contact. The bosonic statistics of the plasmons competes with the fermionic statistics of the electrons; as a result, the quantum point contact emits non-classical radiation with a statistics which can be tuned from bunching to anti-bunching by changing the driving voltage. Our perturbative calculation of the irreducible two-plasmon probability correlator provides us with information on the statistical nature of the emitted plasmons and on the underlying electronic current flow.