Surface lattice resonances for beaming and outcoupling green μ LEDs emission

Abstract

Light-Emitting Diodes (LEDs) exhibit a typical Lambertian emission, raising the need for secondary optics to tailor their emission depending on specific applications. Here, we introduce plasmonic metasurfaces to InGaN green emitting quantum wells for LEDs to control their far-field emission directionality and enhance the collection efficiency. The proposed mechanism is based on surface lattice resonances (SLRs) and relies on the near-field coupling between the InGaN multiple quantum wells (MQWs) and periodic arrays of aluminum (Al) nanodisks. Fourier microscopy measurements reveal that the angular photoluminescence emission pattern depends on the lattice constant of the metasurfaces. We demonstrate that integrating Al metasurfaces in LED wafers can enhance the collected outcoupled light intensity by a factor of 5 compared to the same sample without metasurfaces. We have also performed numerical calculations of the far-field emission based on the reciprocity principle and obtained a very good agreement with the experimental data. The proposed approach controls the emission directionality without the need for secondary optics and it does not require post-etching of the GaN, which makes it a potential candidate to control and enhance the generated light from micro-LEDs.