Semiconductor Technology (Markus-Christian Amann)

Major areas of research are on modern technologies of III-V compound semiconductors, including epitaxy, lithography and etching, and their application in electronic and optoelectronic devices. Molecular beam epitaxy with solid sources (MBE) and gas sources (CBE with group III-alkyls and V-hydrides) is the basis for the controlled growth of heterostructures on GaAs- and InP-substrates for device oriented research, whereas selective growth on masked and patterned substrates is investigated for optoelectronic integration and direct synthesis of one- or quasi zero-dimensional structures of nanometer dimensions. Lateral dimensions in the 100 nm range are obtained by e-beam lithography. Reactive ion etching with high material selectivity and control in monolayer dimensions is utilized for device processing. The device research focuses on key devices, particularly for advanced photonic applications. This includes electronically wavelength tunable lasers, singlemode distributed feedback (DFB) lasers, vertical cavity surface emitting lasers and long wavelength lasers (>1.55 µm) for sensing applications. The development of mathematical models plays an important role for the design and optimization of technological processes and device performance.

The main research projects of E26 are laser devices like Vertical Cavity Surface Emitting Lasers (VCSELs) for sensing applications as well as for high-speed communication systems. For applications in the mid infrared range research on efficient injector less Quantum Cascade Lasers is performed. Furthermore development work in creating single photons in the telecommunications range (1.3µm and 1.5µm) is established.