Plasmonics and Plasmonic Metamaterials Using Random Metal Nanostructures for Highly Efficient Light-Emitting Devices

Abstract

Various optical device applications of surface plasmon (SP) resonance have been reported, in particular, we have discovered that plasmonics can significantly improve the luminous efficiency of materials, and applicable to high-efficiency light-emitting devices include light-emitting diodes (LEDs). In order to develop efficient plasmonic LEDs at a practical level, tuning the SP resonance wavelength is one of the most important issues as well as device development. Based on the SP resonance, the artificial materials whose optical properties can be greatly modulated and controlled by metallic nanostructures are called plasmonic metamaterials. Many types of plasmonic metamaterials have been fabricated dependent on top-down microfabrication techniques such as electron beam lithography. Here, we present a new plasmonic metamaterial based on random nanostructures that can be fabricated easily, inexpensively, and over a large area by a bottom-up approach and enable tuning of the SP resonance in the deep ultraviolet (UV) and near infrared (IR) wavelength regions.