Enhancing the spontaneous emission rate by modulating carrier distribution in GaN-based surface plasmon light-emitting diodes

Based on the nanorod structure, we have fabricated GaN-based surface plasmon light-emitting diodes with Ag nanoparticles deposited laterally proximity to the multiple quantum wells (MQWs) region, which allows us to investigate the quantum well - surface plasmon (QW-SP) coupling effect. Our results show that the QW-SP coupling effect increases significantly when the SP resonant wavelength of Ag nanoparticles is close to the QW emission wavelength, especially by using a shorter wavelength light source, which will further enhance the spontaneous emission rate. Combined with the simulations, we find that the enhancement is due to the decreased excitation light penetration depth into the active region, which can modulate the carrier distribution and increase the proportion of SP-coupled carriers in the MQWs of LEDs. To increase the spontaneous emission rate for the electrical QW-SP coupled LEDs, we can use single QW or MQW structure to confine the carriers in the topmost QW, which will effectively increase the proportion of SP-coupled carriers. Our findings pave a way to design the ultrafast LED light source for the application of visible light communication (VLC). (C) 2017 Optical Society of America