HIGH efficiency LIGHT emission by inelastic tunneling – HighLights

This project aims at demonstrating high efficiency light sources based on inelastic tunneling through a tunnel junction and explore their potential for short range optical communications. Optical links are considered to be a promising venue for on-chip or chip-to-chip communication in order to reduce power consumption. In this context, light emission by inelastic tunneling effect (LEIT) has attractive features: i) ultrafast emission, ii) small footprint. Unfortunately, the efficiency is very low due to the dominant elastic current tunneling in light emitting metal-insulator-metal tunnel junctions. We aim at improving the efficiency by four orders of magnitude by reducing elastic tunneling while enhancing light emission using plasmonic resonators. We will combine the well-established knowledge of electronic transport in tunnel junctions with the nanophotonics know-how (microcavities, plasmonic resonators) to achieve a breakthrough in the efficiency of LEIT.