9500011 Hall The Department of Electrical Engineering at the University of Notre Dame will use the requested funds to purchase a tunable Titanium:Sapphire laser, Argon ion pump laser, and closed loop heat exchanger for pump laser water cooling. The equipment will provide the necessary capabilities for the complete development and characterization of new integrated optoelectronics devices and integrated circuits (OEICs). These structures will be fabricated using a new oxidation technology for aluminum-bearing alloy semiconductors (the "native" oxide of aluminum-gallium-arsenide (A1GaAs)). The planar waveguide lenses, buried strip waveguides, and integrated laser sources to be developed will be useful "building block" components broadly applicable in the further evolution of OEICs. These components will be applied for the realization of novel and higher-performance integrated master oscillator power amplifier (MOPA) devices. As compact and efdicient semiconductor laser sources, MOPA devices have enormous demonstrated potential for generating high-power (>5 W), highly- coherent radiation, and strongly merit further research. The new A1GaAs native oxide will also be investigated as a potential new host material for rare-earth ions, promising a novel approach for incorporating the dopants into III-V semiconductors to obtain monolithically-integrated, optically-pumped, spectrally sharp, temperature-insensitive luminescence sources with new properties and wavelengths. ***
