High-Performance, Resonant Optical Cavity Light-Emitting Diodes

The Phase I Project will develop a comprehensive model to evaluate and optimize state-of-the-art light-emitting diodes for optical memories, optical computing, and fiber or free-space photonic interconnects. The innovation is the development of resonant optical cavity LEDs and a proprietary low-cost epitaxy technology for their fabrication. A unified approach to the design of LEDs with resonant optical cavities will include photon emission, and photon coupling between surface plasmons and excitons. These features will greatly enhance the efficiency of LEDs and improve their function as fiber optic or free-space transmitters, closing the performance gap between LEDs and lasers. The proposed work will be applicable to AlGaAs (red), AlGaInP (green), GaN-based and ZnSe-based (blue), erbium-doped silicon (infrared) InGaAsSb (long wavelength) LEDs. The innovations of the Phase I work will provide a generic, very high-speed, light-emitting diode for optical computing as an optical source for photonic interconnects.