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Enhanced light emission from gap plasmons in nano-strip MIM tunnel junctions

Electrical excitation of light using inelastic electron tunneling is a promising approach for the realization of ultra-compact on-chip optical sources with high modulation bandwidth. However, the practical implementation of these nanoscale light sources presents a challenge due to the low electron-to-photon transduction efficiencies. Here, we investigate designs for the enhancement of light generation and out-coupling in a periodic Ag-SiO2-Ag tunnel junction due to inelastic electron tunneling. The structure presents a unique advantage of a simple fabrication procedure as compared to the other reported structures. By efficiently coupling the gap plasmon mode and the lattice resonance, we achieve a resonant enhancement in the local density of optical states up to three orders of magnitude and enhanced radiative efficiency of ~0.53, 30% higher as compared to the uncoupled structure.