Surface plasmon enhanced LED

Abstract

Summary form only given. We designed and fabricated an LED based on a thin semiconductor membrane (λ/2) with silver mirrors. A large spontaneous emission enhancement and a high modulation speed are obtainable due to the strong localization of the electromagnetic field in the microcavity. The coupling to surface plasmon modes which are subsequently scattered out by means of a grating is used to improve the extraction efficiency of the LED. The bottom mirror is thick and unpatterned. The top mirror is thin and its top surface is patterned with a two dimensional lattice of subwavelength holes. The membrane consists of an InGaAs quantum well emitting at 980 nm with GaAs barriers and p and n type AlGaAs layers positioned next to the silver layers. The silver mirrors may also function as contacts for electrical pumping of the device.

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