New Frontiers in Band-Gap Engineering: Stretching the Limits of Quantum Transport and Design Flexibility for Next Generation Optoelectronics

The extreme precision in semiconductor materials growth together with their high quality allows to extend band-gap engineering to control not only the band gap across a device but also the electron dynamics and scattering processes. One of the greatest achievement using this capability is terahertz  quantum cascade lasers (THz-QCLs) founded on designed electron dynamics in less than handful of subbands. In this part of the talk I will review my efforts to untangle the complexity of the temperature driven electron transport in THz-QCLs towards extending their operation to room temperature (). This study has led to the experimental demonstration of negative differential resistance (NDR) at room temperature in THz-QCLs. This is a strong evidence for the possibility to achieve lasing at room temperature.

The synthesis of new materials by the incorporation of small amount of additive atoms to conventional semiconductor alloys is suggested as an efficient strategy to extend the design flexibility of contemporary optoelectronic devices. In this part of the talk I will review my studies on the MOCVD growth of mixed-anion III-V-N (dilute-nitrides) alloys and demonstrate the increased flexibility that was achieved in designing novel optoelectronic quantum structures and devices.

I will conclude with presenting the high potential of related novel III-nitrides (III-N) materials and quantum structures to solve key technological challenges in optoelectronics.