Surface plasmon coupled emission using conjugated light-emitting polymer films [Invited]

We experimentally investigate surface plasmon coupled emission (SPCE) in the Kretschmann geometry using thin conjugated polymer films. The broad spectral emission from the polymer films usefully demonstrates how the spectral behaviour of SPCE follows clearly from the underlying dispersion of surface plasmon polaritons supported by the configuration. We pay particular attention to how the spectral bandwidth of the underlying emissive layer impacts on the overall performance. Overall the work highlights the many factors that may be considered when designing optimum optoelectronic devices based on metal-organic multilayers. (C) 2011 Optical Society of America