Plasmon-induced enhancement of yellow-red luminescence in InGaN/Au nanocomposites

A significant (by up to a factor of 7) increase in the internal quantum efficiency of luminescence is achieved at room temperature in semiconductor-metal-insulator hybrid structures fabricated by the successive deposition of gold and Si$_3$N$_4$ over an array of InGaN nanoblocks, grown by molecular-beam epitaxy. The observed effect can be accounted for by the resonant interaction of excitons localized in InGaN nanoblocks with localized surface-plasmon modes in gold intrusions embedded into InGaN and Si$_3$N$_4$.