Femtosecond Laser-Printed Gold Nanoantennas for Electrically Driven and Bias-Tuned Nanoscale Light Sources Operating in Visible and Infrared Spectral Ranges

Nanoscale electrically driven light-emitting sources with tunable wavelength represent a milestone for implementation of integrated optoelectronic chips. Plasmonic nanoantennas exhibiting an enhanced local density of optical states (LDOS) and strong Purcell effect hold promise for fabrication of bright nanoscale light emitters. Here, we justify gold parabola-shaped nanobumps and their ordered arrays produced by direct ablation-free femtosecond laser printing as broadband plasmonic light sources electrically excited by a probe of scanning tunneling microscope (STM). I–V curves of the probe-nanoantenna tunnel junction reveal characteristic bias voltages correlating with visible-range localized (0.55 and 0.85 μm) and near-IR (1.65 and 1.87 μm) collective plasmonic modes of these nanoantennas. These multiband resonances confirmed by optical spectroscopy and full-wave simulations provide enhanced LDOS for efficient electrically driven and bias-tuned light emission. Additionally, our studies confirm remarkable applicability of STM for accurate study of optical modes supported by the plasmonic nanoantennas at nanoscale spatial resolution.