Obtaining high efficiency at low power using a quantum-dot microcavity light-emitting diode

Efficiencies are calculated for quantum-dot apertured-microcavity light-emitting diodes. Although the maximum efficiency depends strongly on the quantum-dot inhomogeneous broadening, greater than 20% efficiency is calculated for a small-sized apertured microcavity, even for an inhomogeneous linewidth as large as 30 meV. The efficiency can be increased to 40% if the inhomogeneous linewidth is reduced to 10 meV and to more than 60% if the inhomogeneous linewidth is eliminated to leave a homogeneous linewidth of 6.6 meV. The maximum output powers are /spl sim/40 nW, although a microarray can increase this value. For the case of a single quantum dot, an efficiency >80% is estimated for a submicron apertured-microcavity, with a maximum output power of /spl sim/3 nW.