Band Engineering and Its Applications to Quantum Cascade Laser Design

Band engineering is a very powerful technique for the design of novel semiconductor devices. Individual control of material composition (band gap), thickness, and doping level for each layer in a heterostructure offers unprecedented flexibility in optimizing device characteristics to a particular application. Band engineering will be discussed in the context of Quantum Cascade Lasers, or QCLs. These devices are revolutionizing infrared laser applications in spectroscopy, imaging, directed infrared countermeasures, and other defense and security areas. QCL design principles will be considered, along with their electronic, optical and thermal properties. Current research trends in the field will be covered, including monolithic infrared sensors, THz laser sources based on difference frequency generation, broadly tunable lasers with ultra fast scanning rate, and giant resonant nonlinear susceptibilities of quantum engineered structures.

Bio:

Arkadiy Lyakh is Director of High Performance Quantum Cascade Lasers (QCLs) at Pranalytica, Inc. and is responsible for QCL research and development, as well as QCL component production. He is the inventor of Pranalytica’s proprietary laser design principles that are widely utilized in the development of novel high performance structures. In addition to laser design, he also made key contributions in the areas of laser thermal management, coating, and packaging. His research resulted in several breakthroughs in the field. Dr. Lyakh led the development and transition to production of the first multiwatt continuous wave QCLs in the MWIR and LWIR spectral regions, setting a number of world records in laser optical power and efficiency. He also led the development of novel broadly tunable devices with an ultra-rapid tuning rate for standoff detection and combustion diagnostics, as well as the first substrate-emitting QCLs and MWIR buried heterostructure QCL tree arrays for very high optical power infrared platforms. Dr. Lyakh received his Ph.D. degree from the University of Florida and Master and Bachelor degrees from Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology.