Highly polarized emission from a GaN-based ultraviolet light-emitting diode using a Si-subwavelength grating on a SiO2 underlayer

The polarization characteristics of a 370 nm GaN-based ultraviolet light-emitting diode (UV-LED) were controlled by a subwavelength grating (SWG) on a low-refractive-index SiO2 underlayer inserted between the SWG and LED surface. Highly polarized UV emission was demonstrated by utilizing the Bloch eigenmode resonance in the SWG structure for the two orthogonal polarization states. The polarization ratio of the emission reached 16:1, which is the highest reported to date for direct emission from a GaN-based UV-LED. The decrease in UV emission was also prevented by suppressing the diffracted plane wave and by increasing the amplitude of the wave incident onto the SWG structure; this increase was achieved by taking advantage of the low refractive index of SiO2.