Wide Bandgap II-VI Compounds for Quantum Cascade Lasers

用于量子级联激光器的宽禁带 II-VI 化合物

• 批准号: 0217646
• 负责人: Maria Tamargo
• 金额: $ 24万
• 依托单位: CUNY City College
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2002
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2002-10-01 至 2005-09-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0217646&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Wide; Bandgap; II; VI; Compounds

Quantum Cascade Lasers (QCLs) are a new kind of semiconductor laser based on intersubband transitions within a quantum well (QW). Among the more attractive features of QCLs are their unipolar transport, high power emission, ultrafast modulation (100GHz) and generation of wavelengths in the mid and far infrared, not ever obtained before. Considerable advances have been achieved in the development of the QCLs during the last few years, which have led to the appearance of the first commercial thermoelectrically cooled QCLs.However, there are still many limitations of these lasers. A critical one is the unavailability of QCLs operating in continuous wave (CW) mode at room temperature (RT). Another is the absence of QCLs operating at short wavelengths, such as l=1.55mm, needed to develop ultrafast optical communications. Both of these drawbacks are due to insufficient electron confinement in the materials combinations presently used. Therefore, new systems based on wide band gap materials are required.This program proposes to explore the use of wide bandgap II-VI materials for the development of QCLs. The large conduction band offsets and deep QWs offered by the II-VI semiconductors, such as ZnCdMgSe/ZnCdSe, provide the possibility of higher electron confinement (and consequently the opportunity to obtain QCLs operating at RT in CW mode) and of QCLs that operate at 1.55mm for a new generation of ultrafast optical communications lasers. An important issue in favor of using II-VI semiconductors for QCLs is the fact that these devices are unipolar and do not require p-type doping, which traditionally has been a problem in most of the II-VI systems. While GaN-based materials are an alternative, the difficulties associated with the growth of high quality multi-layered structures of the nitride materials make them less attractive than the near lattice-matched, well-developed II-VI material systems.Several II-VI systems that are particularly promising for QCLs with low threshold current, operating at RT and some of them that should be able to generate emission at 1.55mm will be investigated. The QW properties, such as the energy levels available for intersubband transitions, will be investigated using modulation spectroscopy and other optical techniques. Such techniques have also been extensively utilized in the past by the PIs. Once a system has been identified to have potential for QCL applications, the QW structures will be optimized and incorporated in device structures to investigate the emission and lasing characteristics.

量子级联激光器（QCLS）是一种基于量子孔（QW）内的跨带过渡的新型半导体激光器。 QCL的更具吸引力的特征包括其单极传输，高功率发射，超快调制（100GHz）和中部和远红外的波长产生，以前从未获得过。在过去的几年中，QCL的发展取得了长足的进步，这导致了第一个商业热电学冷却QCL的出现。但是，这些激光器仍然存在许多局限性。一个关键的是在室温（RT）下以连续波（CW）模式运行的QCLS的不可用。另一个是在短波长（例如L = 1.55mm）上进行超快光学通信所需的QCLs。这两个缺点都是由于目前使用的材料组合中的电子限制不足。因此，需要基于宽带隙材料的新系统。该计划建议探索宽带II-VI材料的使用来开发QCL。 II-VI半导体提供的大型传统带反应和深QW，例如Zncdmgse/Zncdse，提供了更高电子限制的可能性（因此有机会在CW模式下以CW模式以1.5毫米的运行QCLS在RT下以RT进行操作，以使新一代毫秒的新一代超级通信的运作。支持将II-VI半导体用于QCL的一个重要问题是，这些设备是单极的，并且不需要P型掺杂，这在传统上在大多数II-VI系统中都是一个问题。虽然基于GAN的材料是一种替代品，但与氮化物材料的高质量多层结构的增长相关的困难使其与近乎晶格匹配的，发达的II-VI II-VI材料系统的吸引力不那么吸引力。几个II-VI材料系统。几个II-VI系统，对于QCL而言，对于QCL而言，QCL尤其有望在RT下进行RT，并且某些人可以在RT上进行调查，并且可以使某些人能够在1. qumistation中进行调查。将使用调制光谱和其他光学技术研究QW特性，例如可用于间间横向过渡的能量水平。过去，PIS也已广泛利用此类技术。一旦确定系统具有QCL应用的潜力，QW结构将被优化并纳入设备结构中，以研究发射和激光特性。