Cathodoluminescence in a scanning electron microscope was applied to a semiconductor quantum dot in a nanowire able to emit single photons. We show that cathodoluminescence can be used not only for imaging and spectroscopy, but also to measure the correlation function and characterize the purity of the single-photon emitter. The electron beam can be manipulated to minimize the collection of parasitic luminescence. At cryogenic temperatures, we observed that the thermal budget, as measured via the phonon sidebands, is close to that of non-resonant micro-photoluminescence. This makes cathodoluminescence an efficient tool in the quest of novel single-photon sources.
@article{arxiv.2512.09542,
title = {Cathodoluminescence Study of a Quantum Dot in a Nanowire for Single-Photon Emission},
author = {Francis Granger and Fabrice Donatini and Edith Bellet-Amalric and Kuntheak Kheng and Gilles Nogues and David Ferrand and Joel Cibert},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2512.09542},
year = {2025}
}