Nanospherical-lens lithographical Ag nanodisk arrays embedded in p-GaN for localized surface plasmon-enhanced blue light emitting diodes

Large-scale Ag nanodisks (NDs) arrays fabricated using nanospherical-lens lithography (NLL) are embedded in p-GaN layer of an InGaN/GaN light-emitting diode (LED) for generating localized surface plasmon (LSP) coupling with the radiating dipoles in the quantum-well (QWs). Based on the Ag NDs with the controlled surface coverage, LSP leads to the improved crystalline quality of regrowth p-GaN, increased photoluminescence (PL) intensity, reduced PL decay time, and enhanced output power of LED. Compared with the LED without Ag NDs, the optical output power at a current of 350 mA of the LSP-enhanced LEDs with Ag NDs having a distance of 20 and 35 nm to QWs is increased by 26.7% and 31.1%, respectively. The electrical characteristics and optical properties of LEDs with embedded Ag NPs are dependent on the distance of between Ag NPs and QWs region. The LED with Ag NDs array structure is also found to exhibit reduced emission divergence, compared to that without Ag NDs.