EAGER: High Power Terahertz Emitters Based on Doped Gallium Nitride

本计划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同事的掺杂晶圆，将制造太赫兹发射器，并进行一系列电学和光学实验，以确定其特性和局限性，并提供优化其性能的数据。知识上的优点是太赫兹发射是一种重要的能力，氮化镓是一种重要的半导体，可以实现比以前基于其他材料和其他机制的发射器更高的性能。原因是氮化镓作为一种宽带隙半导体，可以适应高功耗，并且掺杂剂和杂质具有非常适合产生太赫兹跃迁的深能级。所提出的发射机制对其他半导体是有效的，但对氮化镓的发射机制还不是很清楚，所以这是一个探索性的项目。更广泛的影响是，紧凑、高性能、低成本太赫兹发射器的可用性将对从医疗诊断到污染检测的全球应用产生变革性影响。这个研究项目将增加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。在本地学校举办半导体光电讲座。

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.