USA As Represented by Secretary of the Navy

Chul Soo Kim

Jerry R Meyer

Igor Vurgaftman

William W Bewley

Chadwick Lawrence Canedy

Mijin Kim

Charles D Merritt

Michael V Warren

R Joseph Weiblen

James R Lindle

Eric John Stanton

Joshua Abell

Building blocks are provided for on-chip chemical sensors and other highly-compact photonic integrated circuits combining interband or quantum cascade lasers and detectors with passive waveguides and other components integrated on a III-V or silicon. A MWIR or LWIR laser source is evanescently coupled into a passive extended or resonant-cavity waveguide that provides evanescent coupling to a sample gas (or liquid) for spectroscopic chemical sensing. In the case of an ICL, the uppermost layer of this passive waveguide has a relatively high index of refraction that enables it to form the core of the waveguide, while the ambient air, consisting of the sample gas, functions as the top cladding layer. A fraction of the propagating light beam is absorbed by the sample gas if it contains a chemical species having a fingerprint absorption feature within the spectral linewidth of the laser emission.

Highly stable semiconductor lasers and sensors for III-V and silicon photonic integrated circuits

Resonant-cavity infrared photodetector (RCID) devices that include a thin absorber layer contained entirely within the resonant cavity. In some embodiments, the absorber is a single type-II InAs&#x2014;GaSb interface situated between an AlSb/InAs superlattice n-type region and a p-type AlSb/GaSb region. In other embodiments, the absorber region comprises quantum wells formed on an upper surface of the n-type region. In other embodiments, the absorber region comprises a 'W'-structured quantum well situated between two barrier layers, the 'W'-structured quantum well comprising a hole quantum well sandwiched between two electron quantum wells. In other embodiments, the RCID includes a thin absorber region and an nBn or pBp active core within a resonant cavity. In some embodiments, the RCID is configured to absorb incident light propagating in the direction of the epitaxial growth of the RCID structure, while in other embodiments, it absorbs light propagating in the epitaxial plane of the structure.

In-plane resonant-cavity infrared photodetectors with fully-depleted absorbers

In-plane resonant cavity infrared photodetectors with fully depleted absorbers

Resonant-cavity infrared photodetector (RCID) devices that include a thin absorber layer contained entirely within the resonant cavity. In some embodiments, the absorber is a single type-II InAs-GaSb interface situated between an AlSb/InAs superlattice n-type region and a p-type AlSb/GaSb region. In other embodiments, the absorber region comprises quantum wells formed on an upper surface of the n-type region. In other embodiments, the absorber region comprises a 'W'-structured quantum well situated between two barrier layers, the 'W'-structured quantum well comprising a hole quantum well sandwiched between two electron quantum wells. In other embodiments, the RCID includes a thin absorber region and an nBn or pBp active core within a resonant cavity. In some embodiments, the RCID is configured to absorb incident light propagating in the direction of the epitaxial growth of the RCID structure, while in other embodiments, it absorbs light propagating in the epitaxial plane of the structure.

Growing community of inventors

Springfield, VA, United States of America

Chul Soo Kim