Terahertz Quantum Cascade Lasers

Dr.ssa Miriam Serena Vitiello
University of Bari, Bari (Italy)

Thursday, March 4, 2010 at 3:00pm
Engr IV Shannon Room 54-134

Abstract
Design, fabrication and study of THz quantum-cascade lasers based on different active-regions and optical-waveguide configurations is reported. A review of results obtained via the combination of electrical, optical, ?-photoluminescence and micro-Raman techniques will be given, with particular emphasis on the nature of the electron and phonon distributions and the electron-lattice energy relaxation phenomena. Recent results of running experiments employing THz QCLs combined with state of art superconducting hot-spot air bridge bolometers for selected applications will be presented.

Biography
Miriam Serena Vitiello received her degree in Physics (cum laude) in 2001 and the PhD Degree in Physics in 2006 from University of Bari. In 2006 she was Post-doctoral fellow at CNR-INFM Regional Laboratory LIT3 and from December 2006 to September 2008 she was a Post-Doctoral Research assistant at the Physics Department, University of Bari. From October 2008 to January 2010 she joined the Regional Laboratory LIT3 of the CNR-INFM as a researcher. Since February 2010 she is member of the staff of the National Research Council - Institute of Applied Physics "Nello Carrara" and European Laboratory for Non-Linear Spectroscopy in Florence (Italy) as Researcher responsible of Terahertz sources, detectors and applications and Assistant Professor at the University of Bari. Her researches concern the development and the applications of quantum cascade lasers (QCLs) (mid-infrared and far-infrared regions); the design, the fabrication and the study of photonic devices operating in the far-infrared; the study of inter-subband and inter-miniband transitions in semiconductor heterostructures; electroluminescence and laser action in quantum heterostructures, the Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, the analysis of the electronic, thermal and vibration properties of micro-devices via micro-photoluminescence and Raman spectroscopy. She is co-author of 30 refereed papers on international journalsFor her research activity she received one International Scientific Author Award (USA, 2005) and 2 National Young Author Awards (2003; 2005).