Arkansas Center for Nanodevices (ACEND)

该项目侧重于实现新型纳米器件所需的基础科学，特别是与光电和光通信相关的纳米器件。它旨在形成阿肯色州纳米器件中心（AceND）的核心。研究将集中在纳米器件的设计、外延生长、制造、建模和测试上，用于产生和探测红外和中红外（1-6mm）、远红外（6-100mm）和太赫兹（100-1000mm）等广泛光谱区域的相干波。这些波长范围内相干光源和检测器的发展将影响医学、食品检验、污染控制、通信和遥感。量子点探测器和激光器、光学参量振荡器和放大器、中红外和太赫兹发射器以及子带间激光器都包括在要研究的特定器件的示例中。目前，研究人员正在研究两类量子点（即在真空室中通过分子束外延生长的自组装点和在溶液或某些宿主基质中通过化学方法合成的胶体点）。尽管这两个类别通过量子限制和其他尺寸相关的物理性质相互关联，但基于其流行的尺寸范围，制造技术和有前景的应用，每个类别都有所不同。ACeND的科学家们将整合这两类量子点的活跃研究，以增强对量子点中量子效应的理解，从而提高基于量子点的纳米器件的实现和优化能力。

This project focuses on the basic science needed to realize new nanosize devices specifically related to optoelectronic and optical communications. It aims at forming the nucleus of the Arkansas Center for Nanoscale Devices (AceND). Research will focus on the design, epitaxial growth, fabrication, modeling, and testing of nanodevices for generating and detecting coherent waves over a wide range of spectral regions covering IR and mid-IR (1-6mm), far-IR (6-100mm ) and THz (100-1000mm). The development of coherent sources and detectors in these wavelength ranges will impact medicine, food inspection, pollution control, communications, and remote sensing. Quantum-dot detectors and lasers, optical parametric oscillators and amplifiers, mid-IR and THz emitters, and inter sub-band lasers are included among the examples of specific devices to be investigated. Currently, two categories of quantum are being investigated (i.e., self-assembled dots grown by Molecular Beam Epitaxy in a vacuum chamber and colloidal dots synthesized by chemical methods either in solution or in certain host matrices). Although the two categories are related to each other by quantum confinement and other size-dependent physical properties, each category differs from the other based on its popular size range, fabrication technology, and promising applications. ACeND scientists will integrate active research on both categories of quantum dots to enhance the understanding of quantum effects in quantum dots, and thus the capability of implementing and optimizing nanodevices based on them.