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Tunable Directional Emission from Electrically-driven Nanostrip Tunnel Junctions
S. Kishen, J. Tapar,
Published in SPIE
2022
Volume: 12130
   
Abstract
Electrically driven sources of photons offer a unique platform for realising applications such as beam steering and free-space optical interconnects. Metal-insulator-metal (MIM) tunnel junctions have been extensively used to electrically generate and manipulate light via inelastic electron tunneling. However, beam steering by dynamically switching the excitation source is still not shown. Here, we numerically demonstrate tunable directional emission of light from electrically-driven nanostrip tunnel junctions. Our device consists of an Ag-SiO2-Ag stack with the top Ag film milled into 16 nanostrips. Two nanostrips at the centre, labelled S1 and S2, act as individual sources with a resonance wavelength of ∼ 695 nm. We show that, by individually exciting S1 or S2, the light emission can be directed to spatially different channels, with an angle of emission depending on the periodicity of the passive elements. On applying a bias to source S2, the calculated far-field radiation pattern showed a highly directional beam with an emission angle of 30° and FWHM of < 12°. When the source is switched to S1, the emission pattern shifts to -30° with a similar FWHM, thereby paving the way towards practical, reconfigurable electrically-driven light sources. © 2022 SPIE.
About the journal
JournalData powered by TypesetProceedings of SPIE - The International Society for Optical Engineering
PublisherData powered by TypesetSPIE
ISSN0277786X