Observations of exciton-surface plasmon polariton coupling and exciton-phonon coupling in InGaN/GaN quantum wells covered with Au, Ag, and Al films

The coupling of excitons to surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs) and longitudinal optical (LO) phonons in Au-, Ag-, and Al-coated InxGa1-xN/GaN multiple and single quantum wells (SQWs) was studied with time-resolved cathodoluminescence (CL) and CL wavelength imaging techniques. Excitons were generated in the metal-coated SQWs by injecting a pulsed high-energy electron beam through the thin metal films, which is found to be an ideal method of excitation for plasmonic quantum heterostructures and nanostructures which are opaque to laser/light excitation. The Purcell enhancement factor (F-p) at low temperatures was obtained by the direct measurement of changes in the carrier lifetime caused by the SQW exciton-SPP coupling. The deposition of thin films of Al, Ag, and Au on an InGaN/GaN QW enabled a comparison of exciton-SPP coupling for energy ranges in which the surface plasmon energy is greater than, approximately equal to, and less than the QW excitonic transition energy. We investigated the temperature dependence of the Huang-Rhys factors for exciton-to-LO phonon coupling for the metal-covered and bare samples. CL imaging and spectroscopy with variable excitation densities are used to examine the spatial correlations between CL emission intensity, carrier lifetime, QW excitonic emission energy, and the Huang-Rhys factor, all of which are strongly influenced by local fluctuations in the In composition and formation of InN-rich centers.