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Nonlinear Control Strategies, Inc. was announced winner of a Phase II STTR award from the U.S. Air Force Office of Scientific Research to develop physics-based models for mid-IR Bismides semiconductor lasers, contract No. FA9550-16-C-0021. The contract is a 24-month effort beginning on April 1. 2016. A summary of the Phase II STTR goals is stated below: ABSTRACT: The technical objective of Phase I is the proof of concept for the potential of III-V-Bi devices demonstrated through the systematic theoretical modeling of band positioning and offsets, band bending, and the influences of temperature and carrier density in materials optimized for the mid infrared 3-5 micron wavelength region, including the establishment of a reliable database for systematic modeling. To this end a rigorous understanding of the band structure and semiconductor-laser applications related properties of the novel III-V-Bi material system will be developed. The sophisticated, graphical user interface driven software tools that have been established for standard III-V semiconductor heterostructures will be extended and generalized to become applicable for the bismide systems. Detailed theory-experiment comparisons will be performed to establish a reliable materials database. Using this as input for the systematic, fully microscopic calculations of the gain and intrinsic losses (radiative and Auger, as well as inter-valence band absorption) will allow for a rigorous physics-based modeling of III-V-Bi based optoelectronic devices. This approach will make it possible to design, guide, and provide feedback on growth, fabrication, and evaluation of semiconductor quantum-confined structures with type-I or type-II band alignment that provide optical gain in the 3-5 µm (0.41 to 0.25 eV) window. |
