DOMINO (Antimonides Quantum-Dots for Mid-Infrared Nanophotonic Devices)

The atmospheric window of 3–5 µm mid-IR wavelength range is the window of choice for developing photonic-based products with important societal impact, such as photonic sensors for environment monitoring, photonic diagnosis devices for health care, laser assisted surgery, free-space optical communication systems, and etc. However, there is actually a lack of suitable semiconductor laser diodes (LDs) operating in this domain. The main objective of the DOMINO project is to demonstrate the feasibility of antimonide (Sb)-based nano-photonic lasers, operating with continuous wave (cw) at room temperature (RT) in the 3–5 µm wavelength range. The successful demonstration of Sb-based nanophotonic devices could thus pave the way to the development of high performance mid-IR optoelectronic devices and photonic sensors.

Sb-based heterostructures, grown on GaSb or InAs substrates, exhibit a number of unique possibilities among III-V compounds in terms of band structure engineering. In particular, it is the only III-V technology exhibiting interband transitions in the mid-IR. However,  until now, no quantum-well laser diode is able to operate with cw mode at RT at wavelengths between 3 and 5 µm. DOMINO investigates several new Sb-based laser designs for emission in this wavelength range. The first approach is to use Sb-based quantum-dots (QDs). Indeed, QDs heterostructures are expected to extend the emitted wavelength and to strongly improve the performances of semiconductor LDs (reduced threshold, high operating temperature) as demonstrated with the GaAs and InP technologies. The second approach is to use GaSb/InAs short-period superlattices (SPSLs) as active zones. These SPSLs form a very versatile system which can cover the whole wavelength range from mid- to long- IR.

In addition, the properties of Sb-based nanostructures remain basically unknown up to now. Another goal of our project will be to retrieve a clear picture of their basic physical (structural, electronic and optical (losses and gain)) properties which is a prerequisite to obtaining reliable, high performance, emitting devices. Further, this will allow us to define their field of applications, and in particular to assess the interest of developing other nano-photonic devices. DOMINO will thus open the route to further long-term research on semiconductor nanostructures and nano-photonic devices.

This project is co-funded by the European Commission under the FP6 workprogramme in response to call FP6-IST-NMP-2.

Further details can be obtained in the official website of DOMINO.

Collaboration:

1. Université Montpellier, Montpellier (France)
2. Paul-Drude-Institute, Forschungsverbund Berlin e.V., Berlin (Germany)
3. National Nanotechnology Laboratory, CNR-INFM, Lecce (Italy)
4. University of Hull, Hull (U.K.)
5. Ioffe Physico-Technical Institute, St Petersburg (Russia)
6. Alcatel-Thales III-V Lab, Orsay (France)

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