Patent ID: 8653550

Claim:
A light emitting device having plasmonically enhanced emission, comprising: an inverted light emitting diode (LED) comprising a p-type layer disposed on a substrate, the p-type layer comprising a layer of a p-type III-nitride semiconductor material; a p-type electrode contacted to the p-type layer to provide an Ohmic contact to the p-type layer; an n-type layer comprising a layer of an n-type III-nitride semiconductor material; an n-type electrode disposed on a first region of the n-type layer, the n-type electrode being contacted to the n-type layer to provide an Ohmic contact to the n-type layer; an active quantum well region disposed between the n-type layer and the p-type layer, electrons from the n-type layer and holes from the p-type layer forming electron-hole pairs in the active quantum well region upon the application of current to the inverted LED via the n-type and p-type Ohmic contacts; and a plasmonic metal coating configured to enhance a light emission from the light emitting device, the plasmonic metal coating comprising a plurality of metal nanoparticles disposed on a second region of the n-type layer, the first and second regions being discrete so that the plasmonic metal coating is separate from the n-type electrode, the plasmonic metal coating having a different structure from the n-type electrode such that the plasmonic metal coating and the n-type electrode form separate and discrete structures on the n-type layer; wherein the plasmonic metal coating is configured to match a plasmonic response to a peak emission from the active quantum well region and generate a plurality of surface plasmons at an interface of the plasmonic metal coating and the n-type layer, the n-type layer being sufficiently thin to cause the active quantum well region to be within a fringing field of the surface plasmons; wherein a first plurality of the electron-hole pairs decay via a first decay route to produce a first light emission from the light-emitting device; and wherein a second plurality of the electron-hole pairs couple with a corresponding plurality of the surface plasmons and decay via a second decay route provided by the coupling of the electron-hole pairs and the surface plasmons to produce a second light emission from the light-emitting device; the first and second light emissions providing an enhanced light emission from the light-emitting device.