K. D. Choquette, Univ. of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Intellectual Merit The overarching objective of this proposal is to develop the technology infrastructure for silicon based optoelectronic devices through investigation of nano-engineering approaches for semiconductor heteroepitaxy and device fabrication. The efforts will be focused on the development of new semiconductor materials synthesis and photonic device fabrication technologies that are compatible with existing Si-based microelectronics. The specific research objectives will be to pursue the monolithic integration of AlGaInSb epilayers with silicon substrates and to fabricate photonic crystal light emitting diodes. The research approaches will be the use of interface misfit arrays and spatial gain engineering with nanometer scale patterning to demonstrate electrically injected infrared light emitters compatible with silicon substrates. The intellectual merit of this research is the development of Si-based optoelectronic devices compatible with electronic circuits represents a significant advance for computing, computer networks, and information distribution applications. The development of integrated microelectronic/optoelectronic components will enable the all-optical internet and reconfigurable optical interconnects that will enhance the infrastructure of the Information Age.
Broader Impact: The broader impact of these technological advances will be to increase the performance while decreasing the cost of computing and information distribution. For example this will directly enable the penetration of the internet into wider segments of our society and create further productivity enhancements to the United States industry and State economies. Just as important is the teaching and training of the next generation of scientists and engineers. This will be done through the incorporation of undergraduate and graduate students from under-represented students in science and technology, as well as the participation and inspiration of high school students in this research. This research will enable a potentially revolutionary photonic technology to impact future computer and optical communication systems with the concomitant objective of contributing to the education of future optoelectronic scientists and engineers.
