Hot electrons in magnetic point contacts as a photon source

Abstract

We propose to use a point contact between a ferromagnetic and a normal metal in the presence of a magnetic field for creating a large inverted spin population of hot electrons in the contact core. The key point of the proposal is that when these hot electrons relax by flipping their spin, microwave photons are emitted, with a frequency tunable by the applied magnetic field. While point contacts are an established technology, their use as a photon source is a new and potentially very useful application. We show that this photon emission process can be detected by means of transport spectroscopy and demonstrate stimulated emission of radiation in the 10–100 GHz range for a model point contact system using a minority-spin ferromagnetic injector. These results can potentially lead to new types of lasers based on spin injection in metals.