EAGER: US-Ireland Femtojoule-per-bit Communications with Nanopillar Lasers on Si

目标：这项提议汇集了美国-爱尔兰的国际科学家团队，他们来自加州大学洛杉矶分校(UCLA)、科克理工学院(CIT)和贝尔法斯特女王大学(QUB)，旨在探索一种自下而上的方法，使用在硅上生长的III-V纳米柱(NP)来实现电驱动光子晶体激光器(PCL)。这一建议提出了一套独特的能力，以消除NP表征方面的不足，使开发NP激光成为可能。智能优点：NP-PCL的设计超过了芯片间通信所需的10FJ/比特要求，实现了具有90%以上波导耦合效率的高Q、小电流孔径腔体。通过这种国际合作，可以实现快速开发过程，在加州大学洛杉矶分校进行NP生长和器件制造，在TnI进行泵浦-探测光谱和发射动力学，在昆士兰大学进行原子探针断层扫描和扫描拉曼光谱。这两个团队的共同努力将使研究人员能够快速表征材料质量和收益，并评估设备设计。广泛的影响：美国和爱尔兰之间的合作互动使一个全面的项目比任何单独的合作伙伴都能走得更远。参与小组将在涉及跨学科研究、学生参与研究和社区参与的领域交流最佳实践。这些主题得到了几项努力的支持，这些努力旨在将研究结果纳入纳米材料课程，培训研究生、本科生和高中生，并形成旨在提高美国和爱尔兰少数族裔学生参与度的协同努力。

Objective: This proposal brings together an international US-Ireland team of scientists at University of California Los Angeles (UCLA), the Cork Institute of Technology (CIT), and Queen's University Belfast (QUB) to explore a bottom-up approach to electrically-driven photonic crystal lasers (PCLs) using III-V nano-pillars (NP) grown on Si. This proposal presents a unique set of capabilities to remove deficiencies in NP characterization, making it possible to develop NP lasers to their potential. Intellectual merit: The NP-PCLs have been engineered to surpass the necessary 10 fJ/bit requirement for inter-chip communication by implementing a high-Q, small current aperture cavity with greater than 90% waveguide coupling efficiency. With this international collaboration a rapid development process is possible, where NP growth and device fabrication is performed at UCLA, pump-probe spectroscopy and emission dynamics is performed at TNI, and atom probe tomography and scanning Raman spectroscopy at QUB. The combined effort of the groups will allow researchers to quickly characterize material quality and gain, and evaluate device designs.Broader impacts: The cooperative interaction between the US and Ireland allows for a comprehensive project going much further than would be possible for any individual partner. The participating groups will exchange best practices in areas involving interdisciplinary research, student involvement in research, and community participation. These themes are supported by several efforts to incorporate the findings into nano-materials curricula, train graduate, undergraduate and high school students, and form a concerted effort aimed at increasing minority student participation both in the US and Ireland.