Dynamically controlled Purcell enhancement of visible spontaneous emission in a gated plasmonic heterostructure

Year: 2017

DOI: 10.1038/s41467-017-01870-0

PMCID: PMC5696373

Emission control of colloidal quantum dots (QDs) is a cornerstone of modern high-quality lighting and display technologies. Dynamic emission control of colloidal QDs in an optoelectronic device is usually achieved by changing the optical pump intensity or injection current density. Here we propose and demonstrate a distinctly different mechanism for the temporal modulation of QD emission intensity at constant optical pumping rate. Our mechanism is based on the electrically controlled modulation of the local density of optical states (LDOS) at the position of the QDs, resulting in the modulation of the QD spontaneous emission rate, far-field emission intensity, and quantum yield. We manipulate the LDOS via field effect-induced optical permittivity modulation of an ultrathin titanium nitride (TiN) film, which is incorporated in a gated TiN/SiO_2/Ag plasmonic heterostructure. The demonstrated electrical control of the colloidal QD emission provides a new approach for modulating intensity of light in displays and other optoelectronics.