Optimizing the design of highly linearly polarized white LED with multilayer metal-dielectric grating structure

In order to emit a linearly polarized light and reduce energy loss for a white light emitting diode (LED), a multilayer metal-dielectric grating structure using GaN-based blue LED is proposed. This multilayer structure is composed of three major functional layers: a fluorescent ceramics layer, a dielectric anti-reflection layer and a linear polarization grating layer. Fluorescent ceramics layer is integrated on the top of GaN-based blue LED, to achieve white light emission. In turn, a dielectric anti-reflection layer and a linear polarization grating layer are also integrated to obtain a higher transmission of white light and improve the conversion efficiency of linear polarization. The structural parameters of each functional layer, including period (150 nm), duty cycle (0.5), height of metal-dielectric grating (55 nm and 80 nm) and thickness of dielectric layer (15 nm), are simulated and optimized by finite-difference time-domain method. Then the multilayer structure is fabricated by UV nanoimprint and its transmission and polarization characteristics are tested. The results show that the transmittance and extinction ratio are higher than 50% and 33.8 dB in the wavelength range of 400–800 nm, and the maximum value can reach 91.3% and 41.3 dB, respectively. It is well verified by experiments that the proposed structure has a steady polarization performance of TM mode in the range of ±20°, which provides a fundamental guarantee for developing the potential applications of polarized white LED.