Join iOptics for the first seminar of 2024! See https://iopticsuiuc.web.illinois.edu/ for more info about our organization.
Abstract: Semiconductor nanostructures with low dimensionality like quantum dots are one the best attractive solutions for achieving high performance photonic devices. In particular, quantum dots are currently experiencing a second revolution, in particular thanks to their very high potential for silicon photonics & quantum technologies. When one or more spatial dimensions of the nanocrystal approach the de Broglie wavelength, nanoscale size effects create a spatial quantization of carriers along with various other phenomena based on quantum mechanics. Thanks to their compactness, great thermal stability and large reflection immunity, semiconductor quantum dot lasers are very promising candidates for low energy consumption and isolation free photonic integrated circuits. When directly grown on silicon, they even show a four-wave mixing efficiency much superior compared to the conventional quantum well devices. This remarkable result paves the way for achieving high-efficiency frequency comb generation from a photonic chip. Quantum dot lasers also exhibit a strong potential for applications in optical routing and optical atomic clock. Last but not least, a quantum dot single photon source is a building block in secure communications, and therefore can be applied to quantum information processing for applications such as quantum computers. This lecture will review the recent findings and prospects on nanostructure based light emitters made with quantum-dot technology. Many applications ranging from silicon-based integrated solutions to quantum information systems will be presented. In addition, the lecture will strongly highlight the importance of nanotechnologies on industry and society especially for shaping the future information and communication society.
