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

目的：该提案汇集了加州大学洛杉矶（UCLA），科克理工学院（CIT）和女王大学贝尔法斯特（QUB）的国际美国-爱尔兰科学家团队，以探索使用硅上生长的III-V纳米柱（NP）的电驱动光子晶体激光器（PCL）的自下而上方法。该提案提出了一套独特的能力，以消除NP表征的缺陷，使其有可能开发NP激光器的潜力。智力优点：NP-PCL已经被设计为通过实现具有大于90%的波导耦合效率的高Q、小电流孔径腔来超过芯片间通信所必需的10 fJ/bit要求。通过这种国际合作，快速开发过程是可能的，其中NP生长和器件制造在UCLA进行，泵浦探测光谱和发射动力学在TNI进行，原子探针断层扫描和扫描拉曼光谱在QUB进行。这些小组的共同努力将使研究人员能够快速表征材料质量和增益，并评估设备设计。更广泛的影响：美国和爱尔兰之间的合作互动允许一个全面的项目走得更远，比任何单独的合作伙伴都有可能。参与小组将交流跨学科研究、学生参与研究和社区参与等领域的最佳实践。 这些主题得到了几项努力的支持，这些努力将研究结果纳入纳米材料课程，培训研究生，本科生和高中学生，并形成一个协调一致的努力，旨在提高少数民族学生在美国和爱尔兰的参与。

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.