Nanowire dimer optical antenna brightens the surface defects of silicon

Plasmonic hot spots located between metallic dimer nanostructures have been utilized comprehensively to achieve efficient light emission. However, different from the enhancement occurred in the plasmonic hot spot, the investigation of light emission off the hot spot on submicron scale remains challenge. In this work, we have constructed a plasmonic nanowire dimer (NWD) system to brighten the light emission of the surface defects of silicon off the hot spot on the submicron scale. The NWD can trap light through plasmonic gap, then, the excited emitter on the submicron scale can radiate light efficiently by coupling with the dipole gap plasmonic mode. Furthermore, the coupling of dipole plasmonic mode with the emitters can be tuned by changing the gap size, and then photoluminescence emission was drastically enhanced up to 126 folds. Theoretical simulations reveal the photoluminescence enhancement arises from the combination of the NWD's high radiation efficiency, Purcell enhancement, efficient redirection of the emitted photoluminescence and the excitation enhancement. In this study, the photoluminescence signal can be effectively enhanced by placing nano-antenna patch on the detected low-quantum-efficiency emitters, which may open up a pathway toward controlling plasmonic gap mode enhanced light emission off the hot spot on submicron scale.