Enhanced photoluminescence and directional white-light generation by plasmonic array

Abstract

White light-emitting diodes (LEDs), light sources that combine blue LEDs and yellow phosphors, are equipped with bulky optics such as lenses, mirrors, and/or reflectors to shape the light into the required directions. The presence of bulky optics causes optical loss and limits the design. Here, a periodic array of metallic nanocylinders, which exhibits a high scattering efficiency owing to the excitation of localized surface plasmon resonance, is proposed as an alternative means of achieving a directional output without the limitations of bulky optics. A prototype of a directional light emitter is fabricated consisting of an Al nanocylinder array on a yellow phosphor plate and a blue laser. The array shapes the yellow luminescence into the forward direction and generates directional quasi-white light (correlated color temperature of 4900 K). The intensity enhancement reaches a factor of five in the forward direction and is further improved up to a factor of seven by the deposition of a multilayer dichroic mirror on the back side of the phosphor plate, resulting in conversion efficiencies as high as 90 lm/W. Our results pave the way toward the development of efficient and compact directional white-light-source devices without any bulky optics.