NINFA

Nanostructure Injected Lasers for Ultra-High Frequency Applications

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 Obiettivo del progetto (Objective)

'This proposal is concerned with optically-injected nanostructure lasers, including quantum-dot and quantum-dash semiconductor lasers and the potentials of these devices for Ultra-High Frequency applications, including Terahertz (THz) technologies. In particular, attention will be focused on long-wavelength devices, emitting at the very important telecom wavelengths of 1310 and 1550nm. The aim of this proposal is to analyze experimentally and in theory the effect of optical injection in several nanostructure lasers, including Fabry-Perot, Distributed-Feedback (DFB) and multisection DFB devices with quantum dot and quantum dash active regions. The investigations will include the analysis of the injection locking properties and the mapping of the different regions of nonlinear dynamics when the devices are subject to weak optical injection. In addition, the enhancement of the modulation bandwidth and resonance frequency when these devices are subject to high and ultra-high external optical injection will also be investigated throughout the Fellowship. The limits in the enhanced frequency response will be analyzed for different designed optically-injected nanostructure lasers and the prospects of these devices for use in Ultra-High Frequency applications will be explored. In particular, attention will be focused in pushing up the frequency response of these devices to the THz frequency range which has a wide variety of applications in very disparate fields, including communications, biology, medicine, security, sensing etc. Hence, the vision of this project will be the practical development of a Tuneable THz oscillator built directly from simple and compact photonic components such as nanostructure semiconductor lasers totally compatible with optical communications technologies.'

Introduzione (Teaser)

The latest quantum laser technology is achieving ultra-high frequencies for exciting new applications in fields as diverse as communications, biomedicine, security and sensing.

Descrizione progetto (Article)

Semiconductor lasers built with advanced quantum dot and quantum dash active regions offer many potential advantages. These include enhanced temperature operation, lower energy requirements and increased frequency performance. Such features make them ideal for use in high frequency applications in disparate fields from data communications to security, spectroscopy and sensing. However, full exploitation requires increasing the frequency response of such devices into the ultra-high frequencies (UHF) from the microwave to the millimetre-wave and Terahertz (THz) ranges.

The EU-funded project 'Nanostructure injected lasers for ultra-high frequency applications' (NINFA) is combining quantum laser technology, optical injection and ultra-high frequency THz techniques for many novel applications.

This project pursued a very ambitious long-term objective: the development of a completely tuneable UHF oscillator with operation from the microwave to the THz frequency range and based entirely on simple fibre-optic components. The scientific team of NINFA has successfully achieved this groundbreaking milestone offering exciting prospects for novel future applications of quantum lasers in high frequency applications.

The team studied in great detail quantum-dash and quantum-dot lasers operating at the important telecom wavelengths of 1310nm and 1550nm to enhance basic understanding of fundamental phenomena. The team provided complete stability maps describing non-linear behaviours reporting many groundbreaking experimental observations.

Elucidation of these behaviours demonstrated the suitability of a quantum dot laser for the generation of tuneable microwave signals. Following this line of inquiry, the team delivered for the first time a quantum-dot laser based microwave signal generation system allowing complete and continuous tuneability from below 1 gigahertz (GHz) to over 40 GHz. Moreover, such a system was totally compatible with fibre-optic telecommunication technologies for use in optical wireless networks.

Additional work has led to the generation of tuneable millimetre-wave and THz signals with frequencies ranging from 119 to 954 GHz. Such an extension in the frequency range of nanostructure lasers poises them at the frontiers of imaging, spectroscopy and security applications.

NINFA has presented its results in high-impact peer-reviewed scientific journals and conferences and has already filed its first patent application. Quantum laser technology holds great promise for superior performance and NINFA is unlocking the potential and paving the way to exciting new devices and applications.