Support for the Ninth International Conference on Intersubband Transitions in Quantum Wells

量子阱中的电子子带间跃迁是产生和探测中、远红外(太赫兹)辐射的主要物理机制，用于量子级联激光器和量子井红外光电探测器。这一波长范围在分子传感、大气和污染监测安全、医学成像和安全通信中有应用。科学界目前正在寻找其他可实现更宽波长覆盖和高温操作的材料系统，以及用于改善器件性能的量子点的子能级间跃迁：所有这些方面都在两年一度的量子井子带间跃迁国际会议(ITQW)上进行了讨论，作者在2003年输给瑞士和2005年输给科德角后，于2007年9月为英国确保了这一会议的成功。作者从EPSRC寻求适度的资金，以帮助支持这一重要的活动，并展示英国在该研究领域的领先工作。

Electron intersubband transitions in quantum wells are the primary physicalmechanism for the generation and detection of mid- and far-infrared(terahertz) radiation as used in quantum cascade lasers and quantum wellinfrared photodetectors. This range of wavelengths has applications inmolecular sensing, atmospheric and pollution monitoring security, medical imaging and secure communications. Thescientific community is now looking at other material systems for evenbroader wavelength coverage and high temperature operation as well asintersublevel transitions in quantum dots for improved device performance: allof these aspects are discussed in the biennial International Conference onIntersubband Transitions in Quantum Wells (ITQW) which the authors havefought hard to secure for the U.K. in September 2007 after losing out on two previous occasions to Switzerland in 2003 and Cape Cod in 2005. Theauthors seek modest funding from the EPSRC to help support this prominentevent and showcase the leading U.K. work in this research field.