Surface plasmon enhanced super bright InGaN light emitter

We use surface plasmons to increase the light emission efficiency from InGaN/GaN quantum wells by covering these with thin metallic films. Large luminescence enhancements were measured when silver or aluminum layers are deposited 10 nm above an InGaN light emitting layer, whereas no such enhancements are obtained from gold coated samples. The internal quantum efficiencies of quantum wells before and after metallization were determined from the temperature dependence of the photoluminescence intensity. Our results indicate that the use of surface plasmons will lead to a new class of very bright light emitting diodes, and highly efficient solid‐state light sources. (© 2005 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)