Semiconductor quantum plasmons for high frequency thermal emission

Abstract Plasmons in heavily doped semiconductor layers are optically active excitations with sharp resonances in the 5–15 μm wavelength region set by the doping level and the effective mass. Here, we demonstrate that volume plasmons can form in doped layers of widths of hundreds of nanometers, without the need of potential barrier for electronic confinement. Their strong interaction with light makes them perfect absorbers and therefore suitable for incandescent emission. Moreover, by injecting microwave current in the doped layer, we can modulate the temperature of the electron gas. We have fabricated devices for high frequency thermal emission and measured incandescent emission up to 50 MHz, limited by the cutoff of our detector. The frequency-dependent thermal emission is very well reproduced by our theoretical model that let us envision a frequency cutoff in the tens of GHz.