Non-Poissonian photon statistics from macroscopic photon cutting materials

Mathijs de Jong, Andries Meijerink and Freddy T. Rabouw ()
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Mathijs de Jong: Debye Institute for Nanomaterials Science, Utrecht University
Andries Meijerink: Debye Institute for Nanomaterials Science, Utrecht University
Freddy T. Rabouw: Debye Institute for Nanomaterials Science, Utrecht University

Nature Communications, 2017, vol. 8, issue 1, 1-6

Abstract: Abstract In optical materials energy is usually extracted only from the lowest excited state, resulting in fundamental energy-efficiency limits such as the Shockley–Queisser limit for single-junction solar cells. Photon-cutting materials provide a way around such limits by absorbing high-energy photons and ‘cutting’ them into multiple low-energy excitations that can subsequently be extracted. The occurrence of photon cutting or quantum cutting has been demonstrated in a variety of materials, including semiconductor quantum dots, lanthanides and organic dyes. Here we show that photon cutting results in bunched photon emission on the timescale of the excited-state lifetime, even when observing a macroscopic number of optical centres. Our theoretical derivation matches well with experimental data on NaLaF4:Pr3+, a material that can cut deep-ultraviolet photons into two visible photons. This signature of photon cutting can be used to identify and characterize new photon-cutting materials unambiguously.

Date: 2017
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DOI: 10.1038/ncomms15537

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