Acquisition of a Picosecond Streak Camera System for Time-Dependent Luminescence Measurements of Semiconductor Nanostructures

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Project summaryWe propose the acquisition of a picosecond streak camera system for time-resolvedmeasurements of photoluminescence from semiconductor nanostructures. The equipment will belocated in the PIs optics laboratory in Ginzton, where it would be completely accessible to theco-PIs and their students residing in the same building, as well as to the interested users fromother research groups around Stanford. Ginzton Laboratory has a strong infrastructure fornanophotonics research, including state-of-the-art optics laboratories of the investigators and ashared microfabrication facility. In addition, the Stanford Nanofabrication Facility is located inthe neighboring building and is extensively used by the investigators. The streak camera willcomplement the existing capabilities of the PIs and broaden their research in the fields ofnanoscale photonics and quantum information processing, which are already major thrusts in theGinzton Laboratory. Moreover, the camera will enable research training of a large number ofgraduate and undegraduate students from the research groups of the investigators in performingtime-resolved spectroscopy and will thus be important in education of a new generation ofscientists who will exploit nanophotonics at its full potential. The PIs also place an emphasis onresearch training of women and other underrepresented groups; for example, there are usuallyaround 10 women researchers (mainly experimentalists) across their groups.The streak camera system is capable of unprecedented sensitivity in performing time-resolvedphotoluminescence measurements. If the NSF decides to fund this project, the activity that wouldresult would be time-resolved study of light emitted from photonic nanostructures (e.g., photoniccrystal structures) with embedded emitters, such as excitons in quantum dots or quantum wellimpurities. This is crucial for development of novel low-threshold and high-speed lasers andoptical modulators, as well as hardware for emerging technologies such as quantum computationand quantum communication (e.g., single and entangled photon sources and photon storagecomponents). PIs are presently leading research programs focused on quantum informationprocessing in the optical domain and on development of optical interconnects; these programswould also greatly benefit from the acquisition of the proposed equipment.