Highly efficient and broadband Si homojunction structured near-infrared light emitting diodes based on the phonon-assisted optical near-field process

We fabricated a highly efficient, broadband light emitting diode driven by an optical near field generated at the inhomogeneous domain boundary of a dopant in a homojunction bulk Si crystal and evaluated its performance. To fabricate this device, a forward current was made to flow through a Si p–n junction to anneal it. During this process, the device was irradiated with near-infrared light, producing stimulated-emission light using a two-step phonon-assisted process triggered by the optical near field, and the annealing rate was controlled in a self-organized manner. The device emitted light in a wide photon energy region of 0.73–1.24 eV (wavelength 1.00–1.70 μm). The total power of the emitted light with 11 W of electrical input power was as high as 1.1 W. The external power conversion efficiency of the emitted light was 1.3%, the differential external power conversion efficiency was 5.0%, the external quantum efficiency was 15%, and the differential external quantum efficiency was 40%. The dependency of the emitted light power density on the injected current density clearly showed a characteristic reflecting the two-step phonon-assisted transition process.