Enhanced room temperature infrared LEDs using monolithically integrated plasmonic materials

Abstract

Remarkable systems have been reported recently using the polylithic integration of semiconductor optoelectronic devices and plasmonic materials exhibiting epsilon-near-zero (ENZ) and negative permittivity. In traditional noble metals, the ENZ and plasmonic response is achieved near the metal plasma frequency, limiting plasmonic optoelectronic device design flexibility. Here, we leverage an all-epitaxial approach to monolithically and seamlessly integrate designer plasmonic materials into a quantum dot light emitting diode, leading to a 5.6 × enhancement over an otherwise identical non-plasmonic control sample. The device presented exhibits optical powers comparable, and temperature performance far superior, to commercially available devices.

All-Epitaxial Integration of Long-Wavelength Infrared Plasmonic Materials and Detectors for Enhanced Responsivity

“…Perhaps most importantly these heavily doped semiconductors offer the potential for monolithic integration of plasmonic materials with not only mid-IR quantum engineered emitters, 19 but as we show here, optoelectronic device architectures. 20 We numerically simulate and experimentally demonstrate significant absorption enhancement in thin LWIR detectors, resulting in detector efficiencies commensurate with those of much thicker detectors found in the literature. Our approach provides a demonstration of the potential for monolithically integrated semiconductor plasmonics and optoelectronics at LWIR wavelengths and opens the door to a range of hybrid plasmonic/optoelectronic devices for LWIR applications.…”

“…These “designer metals”, when epitaxially grown, offer control over the spectral range of plasmonic behavior, − as well as control over the dimensions and doping profile of the plasmonic layers with the atomic precision of MBE. Perhaps most importantly these heavily doped semiconductors offer the potential for monolithic integration of plasmonic materials with not only mid-IR quantum engineered emitters, but as we show here, optoelectronic device architectures . We numerically simulate and experimentally demonstrate significant absorption enhancement in thin LWIR detectors, resulting in detector efficiencies commensurate with those of much thicker detectors found in the literature.…”

Plasmon-enhanced distributed Bragg reflectors

“…In low effective mass materials, particularly abundant in III-V semiconductors, such effects can drive the permittivity ϵ of the layer less than zero, leading to so-called 'designer metals' [21]- [24] that have recently emerged as a platform for plasmonic devices with doping-tunable characteristics. [25]- [27] Likewise, the permittivity at shorter wavelengths than the plasma wavelength λ p , defined such that ϵ(λ p ) = 0, is reduced, yielding doping-tunable refractive indices for highlydoped semiconductors with positive permittivities. Free-carrier induced reduction in the refractive index has long been known and leveraged in plasmon-enhanced waveguides for quantum cascade lasers [28], as well as more recently in ultra-thin guided mode resonance detectors.…”

Decay Rates of Plasmonic Elliptical Nanostructures via Effective Medium Theory

“…Moreover, the metallic nano-radiator quantum dot can be employed as an amplifier to the plasmonic surface by using the emission radiation [29,30]. The plasmonic metallic nanostructures; such as gold, silver, and copper can be embedded in many applications such as solar cells [31][32][33][34][35][36], up conversion [32,[37][38][39], light emitting diodes (LEDs) [40,41], lasers and laser printing [42][43][44][45], sensors and photodetectors [46][47][48][49]. Moreover, the plasmonic nanoparticles aid to slow down the speed of light which can enhance both absorption efficiency and optical coupling in the waveguide-cavity for optical communication networks and sensing applications [25,[48][49][50][51][52][53].…”