Spontaneous Emission Rate Enhancement of Silicon Nanocrystals by Plasmonic Bandgap on Copper Grating

The spontaneous emission (SE) rate enhancement due to surface plasmon polariton bandgap effect on copper grating was evaluated by calculating the dispersion relation and the electromagnetic field distribution simultaneously. Within the frequency range of silicon nanocrystals (Si-NC) luminescence ((^h/_2p)??=1.6 eV-1.9 eV), the calculated maximum averaged Purcell factors is about 30-163 for sinusoidal shaped Cu-Si₃N₄ grating. It is proved that copper can be adopted to enhance the SE of Si-NCs. Since copper is the most commonly adopted metal for silicon integrated-circuit manufacturing, such results pave a promising way for integrating Si emitters on microelectronics chips.