Interband cascade (IC) lasers take advantage of the broken band-gap alignment in type-II InAs/Ga(In)Sb quantum wells to reuse injected electrons in cascade stages for photon generation with high quantum efficiency. Significant progress has been achieved in the development of high-performance IC lasers with low power consumption, which includes successful operation of an IC lasers in Curiosity Rover on Mars (好奇号火星探测车) for detection of CH4 and commercial products for many applications such as chemical sensing and environmental monitoring. Also, the IC architecture has been explored for other optoelectronic devices such as infrared photodetectors and photovoltaic cells. Combination of interband transition and fast carrier transport in IC structures provides more flexibilities and advantages to achieve high device performance for photodetectors and photovoltaic cells. The unique features and prospects of IC lasers and relevant optoelectronic devices will be reviewed and discussed with some recent experimental results.
Prof. Yang received the B.Sc. degree in physics from Zhejiang University in 1982, and the M.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees in physics from Nanjing University in 1984 and 1987, respectively. He is the inventor of interband cascade (IC) lasers with research activities ranging from condensed matter physics to semiconductor quantum devices. Prior to joining OU as a professor in 2007, he was a Principal Member of Engineering Staff and a Task Manager at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in California, where he led the development of advanced mid-IR IC lasers for applications in Earth sciences and planetary explorations. He received the Edward Stone Award in 2007 from JPL for outstanding research publication and the successful accelerated infusion of cutting-edge interband cascade semiconductor laser technology into flight mission readiness. He is a fellow of both OSA and IEEE (美国光学学会会士和国际电气与电子工程师学会会士).
Rui Q Yang.pdf
