Ultrafast two-photon emission in a doped semiconductor thin film

Abstract: As a high-order quantum transition, two-photon emission has an extremely low occurrence rate compared to one-photon emission, thus having been considered a forbidden process. Here, we propose a scheme that allows ultrafast two-photon emission, leveraging highly confined surface plasmon polariton modes in a degenerately-doped, light-emitting semiconductor thin film. The surface plasmon polariton modes are tailored to have simultaneous spectral and spatial overlap with the two-photon emission in the semiconductor. Using degenerately-doped InSb as the prototype material, we show that the two-photon emission can be accelerated by 10 orders of magnitude: from tens of milliseconds to picoseconds, surpassing the one-photon emission rate. Our result provides a semiconductor platform for ultrafast single and entangled photon generation, with a tunable emission wavelength in the mid-infrared.