Light emission rate enhancement from InP MQW by plasmon nano-antenna arrays

Arrays of gold single-strip and double-strip nano-antennas, with resonance in the wavelength range of 1200-1600 nm, were fabricated on the top of InGaAs/InP multi quantum well structure. Photo-luminescence from the quantum-wells was measured and shown to be enhanced by a factor of up to 9, with maximum enhancement wavelength corresponding to the nano-antennas resonance. Emission enhancement is attributed to the coupling of emitting charge-carriers to the plasmonic nano-antennas, causing an estimated increase in the radiative recombination rate by a factor of ~25, thus making it dominant over non-radiative recombination. This effect will enable fast modulation of InP-based nano-emitters spontaneously emitting at telecom-wavelength.