Mid-infrared Semiconductor Optoelectronics

Optoelectronic devices operating in the mid-infrared wavelength range offer applications in a variety of areas from environmental gas monitoring around oil rigs to the detection of narcotics. They could also be used for free-space optical communications, thermal imaging applications and the development of "homeland security" measures.

Mid-infrared Semiconductor Optoelectronics is an overview of the current status and technological development in this rapidly emerging area; the basic physics, some of the problems facing the design engineer and a comparison of possible solutions are laid out; the different lasers used as sources for mid-infrared technology are considered; recent work in detectors is reviewed; the last part of the book is concerned with applications.

With a world-wide authorship of experts working in many mid-infrared-related fields this book will be an invaluable reference for researchers and graduate students drawn from physics, electronic and electrical engineering and materials science.

Professor Anthony Krier is the head of the Condensed Matter Division of the Physics Department at Lancaster University, UK. His research is in the optoelectronic properties of semiconductor and polymer materials and the fabrication of diode and laser devices emitting in the 2–10 µm (mid-infrared) range. He is the co-ordinator of the Mid-infrared Network. This EPSRC (UK’s Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council) network has been created to bring together expertise and facilitate research in key areas of semiconductor materials growth, device physics and fabrication in order to advance the technology of mid-infrared optoelectronics. The network links centres of excellence throughout the UK and Europe. This book represents a collaboration between many of these labs which has been substantially supplemented (nearly 50% of the text) by contributions from leading American researchers in this field.