Intense room temperature near infrared emission from Al (3+) and Yb3+ ions

Intense near infrared emission was observed from Al3+ and Yb3+ ions co-implanted SiO2 film on silicon. It was found that the addition of Al3+ ions could remarkably improve the photoluminescence efficiency of Yb3+-implanted SiO2 film. No excitation power saturation was observed and trivial temperature quenching factor of 2 was achieved.

Room temperature operation of photonic-crystal distributed-feedback quantum cascade lasers with single longitudinal and lateral mode performance

We demonstrate room temperature operation of photonic-crystal distributed-feedback quantum cascade lasers emitting at 4.7 mu m. A rectangular photonic crystal lattice perpendicular to the cleaved facet was defined using holographic lithography. The anticrossing of the index- and Bragg-guided dispersions of rectangular lattice forms the band-edge mode with extended mode volume and reduced group velocity. Utilizing this coupling mechanism, single mode operation with a near-diffractive-limited divergence angle of 12 degrees is obtained for 33 mu m wide devices in a temperature range of 85-300 K. The reduced threshold current densities and improved heat dissipation management contribute to the realization of devices' room temperature operation.

High resistance AlGaAs/GaAs quantum cascade detectors grown by solid source molecular beam epitaxy operating above liquid nitrogen temperature

This work was supported by the National Research Projects of China (grant numbers are 60525406, 60736031, 60806018, 60906026, 2006CB604903, 2007AA03Z446 and 2009AA03Z403, 10990100, respectively). The authors would like to thank P Liang, Y Hu, H Sun, X L Zhang, B J Sun, H L Zhen and N Li for their help in processing and characterization.

Characterization and analysis of two-dimensional GaAs-based photonic crystal nanocavities at room temperature

This paper describes the design and fabrication process of a two-dimensional GaAs-based photonic crystal nanocavity and analyzes the optical characterization of cavity modes at room temperature. Single InAs/InGaAs quantum dots (QDs) layer was embedded in a GaAs waveguide layer grown on an Al0.7Ga0.3As layer and GaAs substrate. The patterning of the structure and the membrane release were achieved by using electron-beam lithography, reaction ion etching, inductively coupled plasma etching and selective wet etching. The micro-luminescence spectrum is recorded from the fabricated nanocavities, and it is found that some high-order cavity modes are clearly observed besides the lowest-order resonant mode is exhibited in spite of much high rate of nonradiative recombination. The variance of resonant modes is also discussed as a function of r/a ratio and will be used in techniques aimed to improve the probability of achieving spectral coupling of a single QD to a cavity mode.

Room-temperature dual-wavelength erbium-doped fibre laser based on a sampled fibre Bragg grating and a photonic Robin Hood

With the assistance of a kind of photonic Robin Hood that is originated from four-wave mixing in a dispersion-flattened high-nonlinearity photonic-crystal fibre, a novel dual-wavelength erbium-doped fibre (EDF) laser is proposed and demonstrated by using a sampled fibre Bragg grating. The experiments show that, due to the contribution of the photonic Robin Hood, the proposed fibre laser has the advantage of excellent uniformity, high stability and stable operation at room temperature. Our dual-wavelength EDF laser has the unique merit that the wavelength spacing remains unchanged when tuning the two wavelengths of laser, and this laser is simpler and more stable than the laser reported by Liu et al. [Opt. Express, 13 142 (2005)].

Room-Temperature Ferromagnetism in Co-Doped In2O3 Nanocrystals

Co-doped In2O3 nanocrystals showing room-temperature ferromagnetism have been successfully prepared by a simple sol-gel synthesis route. The sample displays it clear ferromagnetism behavior above 300 K. Phase and structure analyses reveal that the nanocrystals are crystallized with Co ions substituted for In ions in the In2O3 matrix, and no trace of secondary phases or clusters is detected. The experimental results are explained theoretically by first-principles calculations based on density functional theory, which indicate that the native ferromagnetic behavior of Co-doped In2O3 could be mainly ascribed to the strong d-d coupling of the magnetic ions.

Room-Temperature Continuous-Wave Operation of InGaN-Based Blue-Violet Laser Diodes with a Lifetime of 15.6 Hours

We report our recent progress of investigations on InGaN-based blue-violet laser diodes (LDs). The room-temperature (RT) cw operation lifetime of LDs has extended to longer than 15.6 h. The LD structure was grown on a c-plane free-standing (FS) GaN substrate by metal organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD). The typical threshold current and voltage of LD under RT cw operation are 78 mA and 6.8 V, respectively. The experimental analysis of degradation of LD performances suggests that after aging treatment, the increase of series resistance and threshold current can be mainly attributed to the deterioration of p-type ohmic contact and the decrease of internal quantum efficiency of multiple quantum well (MQW), respectively.

WANNIER-STARK LOCALIZATION IN INGAAS/GAAS SUPERLATTICES AND ITS APPLICATION TO ELECTROOPTICAL DEVICES

We have observed Wannier-Stark localization in strained In0.2Ga0.8As/GaAs superlattices by low- and room-temperature photocurrent spectra measurements. The experimental results are well in agreement with the theoretical predictions. A large field-induced modulation response of the absorption edge of the superlattices at room temperature suggests the possibilities of the application to the design of various kinds of electro-optical devices operating at a wavelength of 0.98 mum, based on Wannier-Stark localization effects.

THIN-FILM BIPBSRCACUO DIRECT-CURRENT SUPERCONDUCTING QUANTUM INTERFERING DEVICES OPERATING AT 78-K

Direct current SQUIDs (superconducting quantum interference devices) have been successfully fabricated by using a Pb-doped BiSrCaCuO superconducting thin film made by mixed evaporation of a single source composed of related components with a resistance heater. The dc SQUID comprises a square washer with a small hole. These SQUIDs show perfectly periodic voltage-flux characteristics without magnetic shield, that is, typically, the flux noise and energy resolution at a frequency range from dc to 1 Hz and at 78 K being 1.7 x 10(-3) PHI-0/ square-root Hz and 3.6 x 10(-26) J/Hz, respectively. Meanwhile, we have found out that one of the SQUIDs still was able to operate on flux-locked mode without bias currents and showed voltage-flux second harmonic characteristics. This phenomenon is not well understood, but it may be related to I-V (current-voltage) characteristics of the dc SQUID.

A high speed direct digital frequency synthesizer realized by a segmented nonlinear DAC

This paper presents a high speed ROM-less direct digital frequency synthesizer (DDFS) which has a phase resolution of 32 bits and a magnitude resolution of 10 bits. A 10-bit nonlinear segmented DAC is used in place of the ROM look-up table for phase-to-sine amplitude conversion and the linear DAC in a conventional DDFS.The design procedure for implementing the nonlinear DAC is presented. To ensure high speed, current mode logic (CML) is used. The chip is implemented in Chartered 0.35μm COMS technology with active area of 2.0 × 2.5 mm~2 and total power consumption of 400 mW at a single 3.3 V supply voltage. The maximum operating frequency is 850 MHz at room temperature and 1.0 GHz at 0 ℃.

Influence of a tilted cavity on quantum-dot optoelectronic active devices

Quantum-dot laser diodes (QD-LDs) with a Fabry-Perot cavity and quantum-dot semiconductor optical amplifiers (QD-SOAs) with 7° tilted cavity were fabricated. The influence of a tilted cavity on optoelectronic active devices was also investigated. For the QD-LD, high performance was observed at room temperature. The threshold current was below 30 mA and the slope efficiency was 0.36 W/A. In contrast, the threshold current of the QD-SOA approached 1000 mA, which indicated that low facet reflectivity was obtained due to the tilted cavity design.A much more inverted carrier population was found in the QD-SOA active region at high operating current, thus offering a large optical gain and preserving the advantages of quantum dots in optical amplification and processing applications. Due to the inhomogeneity and excited state transition of quantum dots, the full width at half maximum of the electroluminescence spectrum of the QD-SOA was 81.6 nm at the injection current of 120 mA, which was ideal for broad bandwidth application in a wavelength division multiplexing system. In addition, there was more than one lasing peak in the lasing spectra of both devices and the separation of these peak positions was 6-8 nm,which is approximately equal to the homogeneous broadening of quantum dots.

Room temperature continuous wave operation of 1.33-micron InAs/GaAs quantum dot laser with high output power

Continuous wave operation of a semiconductor laser diode based on five stacks of InAs quantum dots (QDs) embedded within strained InGaAs quantum wells as an active region is demonstrated. At room temperature, 355-mW output power at ground state of 1.33-1.35 microns for a 20-micron ridge-waveguide laser without facet coating is achieved. By optimizing the molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) growth conditions, the QD density per layer is raised to 4*10^(10) cm^(-2). The laser keeps lasing at ground state until the temperature reaches 65 Celsius degree.

Room Temperature Operation of Strain-Compensated 5.5μm Quantum Cascade Lasers

Room temperature operation is an important criterion for high performance of quantum cascade lasers. A strain-compensated quantum cascade laser（λ≈5.5μm） with optimized waveguide structure lasing at room temperature is reported. Accurate control of layer thickness and strain-compensated material composition is demonstrated using X-ray diffraction. An output power of at least 45mW per facet is realized for a 20μm-wide and 2mm-long laser at room temperature.

1.3 mu m GaInNAs/GaAs multiple-quantum-wells resonant-cavity-enhanced photodetectors

A GaInNAs/GaAs multiple quantum well (MQW) resonant-cavity enhanced (RCE) photodetector operating at 1.3 mum with the full-width at half-maximum of 5.5 nm was demonstrated. The GaInNAs RCE photodetector was grown by molecular-beam epitaxy using an ion-removed dc-plasma cell as nitrogen source. GaInNAs/GaAs MQW shows a strong exciton peak at room temperature that is very beneficial for applications in long-wavelength absorption devices. For a 100-mum diameter RCE photodetector, the dark current is 20 and 32 pA at biases of 0 and 6 V, respectively, and the breakdown voltage is -18 V. The measured 3-dB bandwidth is 308 MHz. The reasons resulting in the poor high speed property were analyzed. The tunable wavelength of 18 nm with the angle of incident light was observed.