Improved Performance of Plasmonic Thermal Emitter via Incorporation of Gold Nanoparticles

The improved performance of plasmonic thermal emitter by incorporating randomly distributed gold nanoparticles is demonstrated in the mid-infrared range. Gold films with different thicknesses were deposited on top of the devices and then annealed to form separate nanoparticles. Experimental results showed that the size and distribution of nanoparticles depend mainly on the gold film thickness, rather than annealing temperature. It is observed that thermal emitters with smaller particles embedded exhibit significant enhancement in emission intensity. It is the strong scattering between gold nanoparticles that contributes to the enhanced infrared thermal emission. As an efficient mid-infrared radiation source, this device has the potential to be applied in various fields such as second harmonic generation of infrared source and biosensors.