Nonradiative emission and absorption rates of quantum emitters embedded in metallic systems: microscopic description and their determination from electronic transport

We investigate nonradiative emission and absorption rates of two-level quantum emitters embedded in a metal at low temperatures. We obtain the expressions for both nonradiative transition rates and identify a unique, experimentally accessible way to obtain the nonradiative decay rates via electronic transport in the host metallic system. Our findings not only provide a microscopic description of nonradiative decay channels in metals, but they also allows one to identify and differentiate them from other decay channels, which is crucial to understand and control light-matter interactions at the nanoscale.