Optical antenna enhanced nanoLEDs for on-chip optical interconnects

Since the invention of the laser, stimulated emission has been the de facto king of optical communication. Lasers can be directly modulated at rates as high as 50GHz, much faster than a typical solid state LED that is limited by spontaneous emission to <1GHz. Unfortunately, lasers have a severe scaling problem; they require large cavities operated at high power to achieve efficient lasing, making on-chip integration a serious challenge. A properly designed LED, on the other hand, can be made arbitrarily small and still operate with high-efficiency. Recent work has shown that the quantum yield and spontaneous emission rate of nanoemitters can be drastically increased by coupling to an optical antenna. In this talk, I will demonstrate that by utilizing proper antenna design, an optical antenna coupled to a semiconductor nanoLED can be created that is faster than a laser while still operating at >50% efficiency. The use of circuit models for antenna design and recent experimental work coupling semiconductor emitters to optical antennas will be discussed.