{"id":{"repo_id":"uiuc","oai_identifier":"oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/110866"},"canonical_url":"https://search.dev.ndltd.org/etd/uiuc/oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/110866","repository":{"repo_id":"uiuc","name":"University of Illinois - Urbana-Champaign","base_url":"https://www.ideals.illinois.edu/oai-pmh"},"display":{"title":"The design and fabrication of an inp-based transistor-injected quantum cascade laser","abstract":"The mid-wave infrared (MWIR) and long-wave infrared (LWIR) spectral ranges have been garnering attention for their application in a variety of fields including chemical sensing and free-space communication. Efficient and compact coherent sources in these wavelength ranges are important for enabling practical solutions to these problems. While quantum cascade lasers (QCLs) present one appealing solution for these infrared sources, inherent limitations related to efficiency and operational control leave room for improvement. The transistor-injected quantum cascade laser (TI-QCL) presents a novel three-terminal QCL design that seeks to address these restrictions in order to provide a more practical and efficient solution to the MWIR and LWIR problem space. By placing the active cascade region within the base-collector space charge region of a heterojunction bipolar transistor (HBT), independent control of injection current and cascade region bias is achievable. This decouples the lasing wavelength from the optical power, fixing an inherent limitation of traditional QCLs. In this work, two types of InP-based TI-QCL devices targeting for 7.3 μm and 8.27 μm emissions are designed and fabricated in order to characterize device performance and identify and device improvements. Fundamental operating principles of the TI-QCL are summarized and aspects of TI-QCL epitaxial and physical design are discussed, highlighting some of the unique considerations required for the novel devices. The fabrication process is detailed and device characterization results are analyzed to help inform electrical performance and future improvements. Knowledge obtained from the research done on these two TI-QCL devices has pushed the concept closer to realization. More efficient and functional coherent MWIR and LWIR sources may enable improvements and potentially new spaces for MWIR and LWIR applications.","abstract_html":"The mid-wave infrared (MWIR) and long-wave infrared (LWIR) spectral ranges have been garnering attention for their application in a variety of fields including chemical sensing and free-space communication. Efficient and compact coherent sources in these wavelength ranges are important for enabling practical solutions to these problems. While quantum cascade lasers (QCLs) present one appealing solution for these infrared sources, inherent limitations related to efficiency and operational control leave room for improvement. The transistor-injected quantum cascade laser (TI-QCL) presents a novel three-terminal QCL design that seeks to address these restrictions in order to provide a more practical and efficient solution to the MWIR and LWIR problem space. By placing the active cascade region within the base-collector space charge region of a heterojunction bipolar transistor (HBT), independent control of injection current and cascade region bias is achievable. This decouples the lasing wavelength from the optical power, fixing an inherent limitation of traditional QCLs. In this work, two types of InP-based TI-QCL devices targeting for 7.3 μm and 8.27 μm emissions are designed and fabricated in order to characterize device performance and identify and device improvements. Fundamental operating principles of the TI-QCL are summarized and aspects of TI-QCL epitaxial and physical design are discussed, highlighting some of the unique considerations required for the novel devices. The fabrication process is detailed and device characterization results are analyzed to help inform electrical performance and future improvements. Knowledge obtained from the research done on these two TI-QCL devices has pushed the concept closer to realization. More efficient and functional coherent MWIR and LWIR sources may enable improvements and potentially new spaces for MWIR and LWIR applications.","abstract_has_math":false,"creators":["Kaufman, Robert Bruce"],"institution":"University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign","degree_name":"M.S.","degree_level":"Thesis","degree_discipline":"Electrical & Computer Engr","degree_department":null,"school":null,"contributors":["Dallesasse, John M"],"advisors":[],"committee_chairs":[],"committee_members":[],"year":2021,"date_issued":"2021-09-17T04:06:55Z","date_published":"2021-09-17T04:06:55Z","updated_at":"2026-07-22T22:24:52Z","subjects":["transistor-injected quantum cascade laser","TI-QCL","quantum cascade laser","QCL"],"languages":["en"],"rights":["Copyright 2021 Robert Bruce Kaufman"],"rights_urls":[],"identifier_entries":[]},"links":{"outbound_url":"http://hdl.handle.net/2142/110866","outbound_label":"Handle","outbound_source":"dc:identifier"},"metadata_groups":[{"id":"people","label":"People","entries":[{"key":"dc:contributor","label":"Contributor","values":["Dallesasse, John M"]},{"key":"dc:creator","label":"Author","values":["Kaufman, Robert Bruce"]}]},{"id":"academic_context","label":"Academic Context","entries":[{"key":"dc:date","label":"Dc Date","values":["2021-09-17T04:06:55Z","2023-09-17T04:07:01Z","2021-04-27","2021-05"]},{"key":"dc:type","label":"Dc Type","values":["text","Thesis"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_discipline","label":"Discipline","values":["Electrical & Computer Engr"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_level","label":"Degree Level","values":["Thesis"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_name","label":"Degree Name","values":["M.S."]},{"key":"thesis:institution_name","label":"Thesis Institution Name","values":["University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign"]}]},{"id":"subjects_keywords","label":"Subjects and Keywords","entries":[{"key":"dc:subject","label":"Dc Subject","values":["transistor-injected quantum cascade laser","TI-QCL","quantum cascade laser","QCL"]}]},{"id":"language_rights","label":"Language and Rights","entries":[{"key":"dc:language","label":"Dc Language","values":["en"]},{"key":"dc:rights","label":"Dc Rights","values":["Copyright 2021 Robert Bruce Kaufman"]}]},{"id":"identifiers","label":"Identifiers","entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier","label":"Identifier","values":["http://hdl.handle.net/2142/110866"]}]},{"id":"additional","label":"Additional Metadata","entries":[{"key":"dc:description","label":"Description","values":["The mid-wave infrared (MWIR) and long-wave infrared (LWIR) spectral ranges have been garnering attention for their application in a variety of fields including chemical sensing and free-space communication. Efficient and compact coherent sources in these wavelength ranges are important for enabling practical solutions to these problems. While quantum cascade lasers (QCLs) present one appealing solution for these infrared sources, inherent limitations related to efficiency and operational control leave room for improvement. The transistor-injected quantum cascade laser (TI-QCL) presents a novel three-terminal QCL design that seeks to address these restrictions in order to provide a more practical and efficient solution to the MWIR and LWIR problem space. By placing the active cascade region within the base-collector space charge region of a heterojunction bipolar transistor (HBT), independent control of injection current and cascade region bias is achievable. This decouples the lasing wavelength from the optical power, fixing an inherent limitation of traditional QCLs. In this work, two types of InP-based TI-QCL devices targeting for 7.3 μm and 8.27 μm emissions are designed and fabricated in order to characterize device performance and identify and device improvements. Fundamental operating principles of the TI-QCL are summarized and aspects of TI-QCL epitaxial and physical design are discussed, highlighting some of the unique considerations required for the novel devices. The fabrication process is detailed and device characterization results are analyzed to help inform electrical performance and future improvements. Knowledge obtained from the research done on these two TI-QCL devices has pushed the concept closer to realization. More efficient and functional coherent MWIR and LWIR sources may enable improvements and potentially new spaces for MWIR and LWIR applications.","Submission published under a 24 month embargo labeled 'Closed Access', the embargo will last until 2023-05-01","The student, Robert Kaufman, accepted the attached license on 2021-04-27 at 09:40.","The student, Robert Kaufman, submitted this Thesis for approval on 2021-04-27 at 09:59.","This Thesis was approved for publication on 2021-04-27 at 15:11.","DSpace SAF Submission Ingestion Package generated from Vireo submission #16582 on 2021-09-16 at 20:14:31","Made available in DSpace on 2021-09-17T04:06:55Z (GMT). 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Efficient and compact coherent sources in these wavelength ranges are important for enabling practical solutions to these problems. While quantum cascade lasers (QCLs) present one appealing solution for these infrared sources, inherent limitations related to efficiency and operational control leave room for improvement. The transistor-injected quantum cascade laser (TI-QCL) presents a novel three-terminal QCL design that seeks to address these restrictions in order to provide a more practical and efficient solution to the MWIR and LWIR problem space. By placing the active cascade region within the base-collector space charge region of a heterojunction bipolar transistor (HBT), independent control of injection current and cascade region bias is achievable. This decouples the lasing wavelength from the optical power, fixing an inherent limitation of traditional QCLs. In this work, two types of InP-based TI-QCL devices targeting for 7.3 μm and 8.27 μm emissions are designed and fabricated in order to characterize device performance and identify and device improvements. Fundamental operating principles of the TI-QCL are summarized and aspects of TI-QCL epitaxial and physical design are discussed, highlighting some of the unique considerations required for the novel devices. The fabrication process is detailed and device characterization results are analyzed to help inform electrical performance and future improvements. Knowledge obtained from the research done on these two TI-QCL devices has pushed the concept closer to realization. More efficient and functional coherent MWIR and LWIR sources may enable improvements and potentially new spaces for MWIR and LWIR applications.","Submission published under a 24 month embargo labeled 'Closed Access', the embargo will last until 2023-05-01","The student, Robert Kaufman, accepted the attached license on 2021-04-27 at 09:40.","The student, Robert Kaufman, submitted this Thesis for approval on 2021-04-27 at 09:59.","This Thesis was approved for publication on 2021-04-27 at 15:11.","DSpace SAF Submission Ingestion Package generated from Vireo submission #16582 on 2021-09-16 at 20:14:31","Made available in DSpace on 2021-09-17T04:06:55Z (GMT). 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