Thermal Properties of Polymer Hole-Transport Layers Influence the Efficiency Roll-off and Stability of Perovskite Light-Emitting Diodes.

While the performance of metal halide perovskite light-emitting diodes (PeLEDs) has rapidly improved in recent years, their stability remains a bottleneck to commercial realization. Here, we show that the thermal stability of polymer hole-transport layers (HTLs) used in PeLEDs represents an important factor influencing the external quantum efficiency (EQE) roll-off and device lifetime. We demonstrate a reduced EQE roll-off, a higher breakdown current density of approximately 6 A cm-2, a maximum radiance of 760 W sr-1 m-2, and a longer device lifetime for PeLEDs using polymer HTLs with high glass-transition temperatures. Furthermore, for devices driven by nanosecond electrical pulses, a record high radiance of 1.23 MW sr-1 m-2 and an EQE of approximately 1.92% at 14.6 kA cm-2 are achieved. Thermally stable polymer HTLs enable stable operation of PeLEDs that can sustain more than 11.7 million electrical pulses at 1 kA cm-2 before device failure.

Unidirectional mode selection in bistable quantum cascade ring lasers.

Ideal ring resonators are characterized by travelling-wave counter-propagating modes, but in practice travelling waves can only be realized under unidirectional operation, which has proved elusive. Here, we have designed and fabricated a monolithic quantum cascade ring laser coupled to an active waveguide that allows for robust, deterministic and controllable unidirectional operation. Spontaneous emission injection through the active waveguide enables dynamical switching between the clockwise and counterclockwise states of the ring laser with as little as 1.6% modulation of the electrical input. We show that this behavior stems from a perturbation in the bistable dynamics of the ring laser. In addition to switching and bistability, our novel coupler design for quantum cascade ring lasers offers an efficient mechanism for outcoupling and light detection.

Wavelength independent normal incident quantum cascade detectors.

We demonstrate a novel technique for normal-incident absorption in intersubband infrared detectors by taking advantage of light scattering from the side-walls of a wet-etched mesa. We fabricate 'spiral' and 'hairpin' shaped quantum cascade detector at a peak wavelength of 6.6 µm, and compare their performance with a standard rectangular mesa. We achieve a peak responsivity of 6 mA/W for the spiral and 12 mA/W for the hairpin detectors at normal incidence, comparable to the 8.8 mA/W obtained for the mesa at 45 degree incidence. We obtain a background limited detectivity of about 3×1010 cmHz/W for the spiral and hairpin detectors at 80 K, compared to 3×108 cmHz/W for the standard mesa. This method to achieve normal incidence absorption is wavelength independent, and does not involve complicated fabrication procedures, paving the way for widespread use of intersubband detectors in sensor applications.

II-VI Quantum Cascade emitters in the 6-8µm range.

We present the growth and characterization of ZnCdSe/ZnCdMgSe quantum cascade (QC) heterostructures grown by molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) and designed to operate at 6-8µm. These structures utilize the better-understood ZnCdMgSe with InP lattice matched compositions yielding a bandgap of 2.80 eV as compared to previous work which used ZnCdMgSe compositions with bandgaps at 3.00 eV. Grown structures posses good structural and optical properties evidenced in X-ray diffraction and photoluminescence studies. Fabricated mesa devices show temperature dependent I-V measurements with differential resistance of 3.6 Ω, and a turn on voltage of 11V consistent with design specifications. Electroluminescence was observed in these devices up to room temperature with emission centered at 7.1 µm and line widths of ∼16%(ΔE/E) at 80K. The results show that these are well-behaved electroluminescent structures. Addition of waveguide layers and further improvements in well barrier interfaces are being pursued in efforts to demonstrate lasing.

High power spiral cavity quantum cascade superluminescent emitter.

Quantum Cascade devices with an emission wavelength centered around 5 µm have been shaped into compact, yet long (8 mm and 12 mm) spiral cavities to increase mid-infrared superluminescence (SL) power. Up to ~57 mW of SL power at 250 K is obtained with a Gaussian emission spectrum with a full width at half maximum of 56 cm(-1) and a coherence length of ~107 µm.

Wavelength selection and spectral narrowing of Distributed Bragg Reflector quantum cascade lasers up to peak optical power.

We investigate the impact of Distributed Bragg Reflectors (DBR), ion-milled directly on top of Fabry-Perot type Quantum Cascade (QC) laser ridges, following fabrication and processing of the devices and observe a more than 10-fold reduction in spectral full-width-half-maximum (FWHM) and a maximum of 20dB side-mode suppression ratio (SMSR), maintained to peak optical power. As predicted by our model, and experimentally verified, there is a "sweet-spot" in terms of grating length, ~200 µm on a 3 mm long laser ridge, and a trade-off between spectral narrowing and output power, set by the grating depth, varied from 1.8 to 2.5 µm.

ZnCdSe/ZnCdMgSe quantum well infrared photodetector.

We report the design, fabrication and characterization of a II-VI Zn(0.51)Cd(0.49)Se / Zn_{0.45(Cd)0.42(Mg)(0.13)Se-based quantum well infrared photodetector (QWIP) with a bound to quasi-bound transition centered at 8.7 µm. The good growth quality of the epitaxial layers was verified by x-ray diffraction measurements. Absorption and photocurrent measurements yield results consistent with conventional III-V QWIPs. Photocurrent measurements reveal an exponential decrease with temperature. In addition, we also observe more than 4 orders of magnitude increase in photocurrent with applied bias. By compensating the drop in temperature performance with an increase in applied bias, we achieve an operating temperature of up to 140K and a responsivity of 1-10 µA/W.}

Mid-infrared characterization of solution-processed As2S3 chalcogenide glass waveguides.

An etch-free and cost-effective deposition and patterning method to fabricate mid-infrared chalcogenide glass waveguides for chemical sensing applications is introduced. As(2)S(3) raised strip optical waveguides are produced by casting a liquid solution of As(2)S(3) glass in capillary channel molds formed by soft lithography. Mid-IR transmission is characterized by coupling the output of a quantum cascade (QC) laser (lambda = 4.8 microm) into the 40 microm wide by 10 microm thick multi-mode waveguides. Loss as low as 4.5 dB/cm is achieved using suitable substrate materials and post-processing. Optical absorption and surface roughness measurements indicate that the solution-processed films are of sufficient quality for optical devices and are promising for further development of waveguide-based mid-IR elements.

Continuous-wave subwavelength microdisk lasers at λ = 1.53 µm.

Subwavelength InGaAs/AlInAs microdisk lasers are demonstrated under continuous-wave optical pumping at a heat-sink temperature of 45 K. A 1.49 µm diameter, 209 nm thick microdisk lases in single-mode at a wavelength of 1.53 µm, which is identified as the whispering-gallery mode with the first radial mode number, the fifth azimuthal mode number, and a modal volume of 2.12(λ/n)(3) according to our mode simulation.

Chalcogenide glass waveguides integrated with quantum cascade lasers for on-chip mid-IR photonic circuits.

We demonstrate on-chip hybrid integration of chalcogenide glass waveguides and quantum cascade lasers (QCLs). Integration is achieved using an additive solution-casting and molding method to directly form As(2)S(3) strip waveguides on an existing QCL chip. Integrated As(2)S(3) strip waveguides constructed in this manner display strong optical confinement and guiding around 90° bends, with a NA of 0.24 and bend loss of 12.9dB at a 1mm radius (λ=4.8µm).

Noninvasive in vivo glucose sensing on human subjects using mid-infrared light.

Mid-infrared quantum cascade laser spectroscopy is used to noninvasively predict blood glucose concentrations of three healthy human subjects in vivo. We utilize a hollow-core fiber based optical setup for light delivery and collection along with a broadly tunable quantum cascade laser to obtain spectra from human subjects and use standard chemo-metric techniques (namely partial least squares regression) for prediction analysis. Throughout a glucose concentration range of 80-160 mg/dL, we achieve clinically accurate predictions 84% of the time, on average. This work opens a new path to a noninvasive in vivo glucose sensor that would benefit the lives of hundreds of millions of diabetics worldwide.

In vivo measurement of mid-infrared light scattering from human skin.

Two mid-infrared light sources, a broadband source from a Fourier Transform Infrared Spectrometer (FTIR) and a pulsed Quantum Cascade (QC) Laser, are used to measure angle-resolved backscattering in vivo from human skin across a broad spectral range. Scattering profiles measured using the FTIR suggest limited penetration of the light into the skin, with most of the light interacting with the stratum corneum layer of the epidermis. Scattering profiles from the QC laser show modulation patterns with angle suggesting interaction with scattering centers in the skin. The scattering is attributed to interaction of the laser light with components such as collagen fibers and capillaries in the dermis layer of the skin.

In vitro measurements of physiological glucose concentrations in biological fluids using mid-infrared light.

Mid-infrared transmission spectroscopy using broadband mid-infrared or Quantum Cascade laser sources is used to predict glucose concentrations of aqueous and serum solutions containing physiologically relevant amounts of glucose (50-400 mg/dL). We employ partial least squares regression to generate a calibration model using a subset of the spectra taken and to predict concentrations from new spectra. Clinically accurate measurements with respect to a Clarke error grid were made for concentrations as low as 30 mg/dL, regardless of background solvent. These results are an important and encouraging step in the work towards developing a noninvasive in vivo glucose sensor in the mid-infrared.

A quantum cascade laser cw cavity ringdown spectrometer coupled to a supersonic expansion source.

A new instrument has been constructed that couples a supersonic expansion source to a continuous wave cavity ringdown spectrometer using a Fabry-Perot quantum cascade laser (QCL). The purpose of the instrument is to enable the acquisition of a cold, rotationally resolved gas phase spectrum of buckminsterfullerene (C(60)). As a first test of the system, high resolution spectra of the nu(8) vibrational band of CH(2)Br(2) have been acquired at approximately 1197 cm(-1). To our knowledge, this is the first time that a vibrational band not previously recorded with rotational resolution has been acquired with a QCL-based ringdown spectrometer. 62 transitions of the three isotopologues of CH(2)Br(2) were assigned and fit to effective Hamiltonians with a standard deviation of 14 MHz, which is smaller than the laser frequency step size. The spectra have a noise equivalent absorption coefficient of 1.4 x 10(-8) cm(-1). Spectral simulations of the band indicate that the supersonic source produces rotationally cold (approximately 7 K) molecules.

Quantum cascade surface-emitting photonic crystal laser.

We combine photonic and electronic band structure engineering to create a surface-emitting quantum cascade microcavity laser. A high-index contrast two-dimensional photonic crystal is used to form a micro-resonator that simultaneously provides feedback for laser action and diffracts light vertically from the surface of the semiconductor surface. A top metallic contact allows electrical current injection and provides vertical optical confinement through a bound surface plasmon wave. The miniaturization and tailorable emission properties of this design are potentially important for sensing applications, while electrical pumping can allow new studies of photonic crystal and surface plasmon structures in nonlinear and near-field optics.