Gold atomic point contacts are prototype systems to evidence ballistic
electron transport. The typical dimension of the nanojunction being smaller
than the electron-phonon interaction length, even at room temperature,
electrons transfer their excess energy to the lattice only far from the
contact. At the contact however, favored by huge current densities,
electron-electron interactions result in a nano hot electron gas acting as a
source of photons. Using a home built Mechanically Controlled Break Junction,
it is reported here, for the first time, that this hot electron gas also
radiates in the infrared range (0.2eV to 1.2eV). Moreover, in agreement with
the pioneering work of Tomchuk, we show that this radiation is compatible with
a blackbody like spectrum emitted from an electron gas at temperatures of
several thousands of Kelvin given by (kB.Te)2=α.I.V where α,
I and V are respectively a fitting parameter, the current flowing and the
applied bias.Comment: 13 pages, 5 figure