CAREER: Enhancement Plan - Research on Blue Semiconductor Lasers and Early Motivation of Electrical Engineering Students

9502888梅诺尼提出了一项为期四年的职业发展计划，该计划将蓝色半导体激光器技术重要领域的研究计划与教育活动结合起来，以开发旨在激励学生在职业生涯早期早期的一门新课程《电气工程导论》为中心。提出了一项研究II-VI四元系ZnMgSSe的光学和电学性质的计划，这些材料具有发展短波长半导体激光器的巨大潜力。短波长半导体激光器将极大地影响高密度光存储、激光打印等重要技术应用，目前红外光源的使用限制了这些应用的能力。蓝绿激光已被演示。然而，它们的输出特性对于这些应用中的大多数来说仍然远远不是理想的。对控制激光操作的材料特性和器件结构相关工艺的详细了解将提高特性。我建议研究载流子限制，载流子捕获、逃逸和复合机制。这些研究的结果将首先应用于边缘发射激光器的开发，这将通过阈值电流和增益和损耗测量来表征。在边缘发射体研究中所获得的知识将应用于垂直腔面发射激光器的设计。拟议中的教育活动的主要重点是开发一门新生课程--《电气工程导论》。这门课程旨在吸引学生在职业生涯初期对电气工程的不同领域感兴趣，从而降低辍学率。我还把这门课想象成一种途径，教会他们在职业生涯中将使用的不同工具，并向他们展示这一过程是多么有趣和具有挑战性。***

9502888 Menoni A four year career development program that combines a research plan in the technological important area of blue semiconductor lasers and educational activities centered in the development of a freshmen course "Introduction to Electrical Engineering" designed to motivate students early on in their career, is proposed. A research plan is proposed to study the optical and electronic properties of the II-VI quaternary ZnMgSSe which have significant potential for the development of short wavelength semiconductor lasers. Short wavelength semiconductor lasers will greatly impact high density optical memories, laser printing and other important technological applications, whose capabilities are presently limited by the use of infrared laser sources. Blue-green laser have been demonstrated. However, their output characteristics are still far from being ideal for most of these applications. Improved characteristics will arise from a detailed understanding of the material properties and device structure dependent processes which control the laser operation. I propose to study carrier confinement, the mechanisms of carrier capture and escape and recombination in ZnMgSSe MQWs. The results of these studies will be first applied to the development of edge emitting lasers which will be characterized from threshold current and gain and loss measurements. The knowledge gained in the study of edge emitters will be applied to the design of vertical cavity surface emitting lasers. The main focus of the proposed educational activities lie in the development of a freshmen course "Introduction to Electrical Engineering." This course is designed to captivate the interest of the students into the different areas of Electrical Engineering at an early stage on their career, and thus reduce the drop-out rate. I also envision this class as an avenue to teach them different tools they will use throughout their career and to show them how fun and challenging this pr ofession can be. ***