EAGER: High Power Terahertz Emitters Based on Doped Gallium Nitride

本项目的目的是研究基于宽禁带半导体氮化镓中杂质中心跃迁的高功率太赫兹发射器件的特性。利用来自大学和工业界的同事的掺杂晶片，将制造出太赫兹发射器，一系列的电学和光学实验将确定其特点和局限性，并提供数据以优化其性能。智力上的优点是太赫兹发射是一种重要的能力，而氮化镓是一种重要的半导体，可能会使性能高于以前基于其他材料和其他机制的发射器。这是因为氮化镓作为一种宽禁带半导体，可以承受很高的功率损耗，而且掺杂和杂质具有很高的能级，非常适合产生太赫兹的跃迁。所提出的发射机制对其他半导体是有效的，但对氮化镓还不是很清楚，所以这是一个探索性的项目。更广泛的影响是，紧凑型、高性能、低成本太赫兹发射器的可获得性将对从医疗诊断到污染检测的全球应用产生变革。这个研究项目将增加关于设备和材料的基础知识，并将以学生与大学和工业研究人员的互动为特色。半导体光电子学的讲座将在当地学校举行。

The objective of this program is to investigate the properties of high power terahertz emitting devices based on impurity center transitions in the wide bandgap semiconductor, gallium nitride. Using doped wafers from colleagues at universities and industry, terahertz emitters will be fabricated, and a series of electrical and optical experiments will determine their characteristics and limitations, and provide the data to optimize their performance.The intellectual merit is that terahertz emission is an important capability, and gallium nitride is an important semiconductor that may enable higher performance than previous emitters based on other materials and other mechanisms. The reason is that gallium nitride, as a wide bandgap semiconductor, can accommodate high power dissipation, and the dopants and impurities have deep energy levels that are perfectly suitable for terahertz-producing transitions. The proposed emission mechanism was effective for other semiconductors, but is not well understood in gallium nitride, so this is an exploratory project. The broader impacts are that the availability of compact, high performance, low cost terahertz emitters will be transformative for global applications from medical diagnostics to pollution detection. This research project will add to fundamental knowledge on devices and materials, and will feature the interaction of students with university and industrial researchers. Lectures on semiconductor optoelectronics will be presented at local schools.